Shipping Costs

[dennis thompson]

I know I'm going to be seen as an old grouch and a cheapskate, I won't argue with that, but It drives me nuts when I order $16 worth of stuff from Lee Valley or anybody else,and the shipping is $8 or half the cost of the items I purchased.:(
Am I alone here?:confused:

[Ron Citerone]

No, you are not alone here. Your angst is what makes Amazon what it is, the shipping.

I have the same issue with fishing supplies. I try to wait till I need enough stuff to make the minimum amount for free shipping.

Big box stores often ship to stores free, but as a high risk individual I am trying to keep my store shopping to a minimum. If I can grab something off the shelf and do quick checkout I will, but want to avoid the customer service desk.

Many times for hobbies you can't get what you need locally and have to just pay the freight! :(

Having sent some packages myself lately, I know shipping isn't cheap!

[Brian Elfert]

It costs real money to ship stuff. $8 is maybe a little high, but not outrageous. Lee Valley doesn't have their own shipping system like Amazon does. Amazon shipping may be "free" for Prime members, but remember that Prime members pay $119 per year. I also notice that small commodity items are often more expensive at Amazon than going to the store for the same item. They gotta cover shipping somehow.

One company I buy from has two websites. One has free shipping for everything and the other website you pay shipping on everything. Same products on both websites. Guess what, the website with the free shipping everything costs more. For small orders under $10 or $20 it is cheaper to get the free shipping. For larger orders the website where you pay shipping is less expensive overall.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Even a 1lb Priority Mail package is ~$7.50...

[Grant Wilkinson]

While I can sympathize, I can also be jealous. Being in Canada, it is routine for me to have to pay more for shipping than for the merchandise when it originates in the US. Then, there are all the companies that simply refuse to ship to Canada, and the couriers that charge Canadians a "brokerage fee", which is generally in the $40 range regardless of the cost of the shipment. Shipping within Canada is also much higher than shipping within the US and Canadian businesses don't seem to offer free shipping as often as US suppliers do.

So, with all that whining out of the way, I sulk away now. :)

[Clarence Martinn]

What I don't like about the way shipping is done, is the "price of the Item", shipping rates. The more an item costs , the more the shipping rates are for that item. People can say "Well , there is insurance involved," or some other such thing. If you have 2 identical size and shape items that both cost the same to make, the only difference being that because something is a hot seller, the company decides to charge more for it, why is the shipping higher on the more expensive item ? Seems to me that in that instance, the Company is making a profit on the extra shipping cost; when the shipping cost is actually the same as for the lower priced item

[glenn bradley]

Successful retailers have working models for their shipping charges so that overall they do not negatively impact their business. Retailers that ship enough, and consistently enough, can use contracts that are not single transaction specific. Since nothing is free, we all pay shipping whether it is a line item or not. Some suppliers use a price-of-the-sale sort of math. It may mathematically be correct but, it just feel wrong ;-)

For retailers that allow "free" shipping when you purchase a specific amount, a bit of planning will take care of that. I have 'wish lists' most places I shop and can round out an order to hit the "free" shipping price point by adding something I would buy anyway. For source comparisons, I always go through the motions to get the total cost of getting the item in my hands. Sometimes the more expensive price yields a lower cost when all is said and done.

[Jim Becker]

Most small order shipping today uses "flat rates" from the carriers for whatever method is being used for the size and weight of the package. A USPS small, flat rate priority mail package costs just under eight bucks...a hair less for volume shippers. And vendors do have overhead costs, too, which are not much different for small orders than they are for large orders, despite the much lower profit. Even in my ETSY store where I offer "free shipping", you can bet that the cost is calculated into the price of the goods.

As to Lee Valley, you're not doing your duty and buying enough. $30 order gets you free shipping. Who cannot spend thirty bucks at Lee Valley quite easily? Huh? :D :D :D

[Darcy Warner]

I can't drive to mcmaster car and back for the 10 bucks the shipping always seems to cost me.

[dennis thompson]

Most small order shipping today uses "flat rates" from the carriers for whatever method is being used for the size and weight of the package. A USPS small, flat rate priority mail package costs just under eight bucks...a hair less for volume shippers. And vendors do have overhead costs, too, which are not much different for small orders than they are for large orders, despite the much lower profit. Even in my ETSY store where I offer "free shipping", you can bet that the cost is calculated into the price of the goods.

As to Lee Valley, you're not doing your duty and buying enough. $30 order gets you free shipping. Who cannot spend thirty bucks at Lee Valley quite easily? Huh? :D :D :D

I think that if shipping were built into the price of the items so that my $16 order was $24, with " free shipping", I'd be more likely to buy the items. I don't have research to support that but just feel that way.
Now your idea of buying more to get to the free shipping level is an excellent one!:)

[Brett Luna]

I know I'm going to be seen as an old grouch and a cheapskate, I won't argue with that, but It drives me nuts when I order $16 worth of stuff from Lee Valley or anybody else,and the shipping is $8 or half the cost of the items I purchased.:(
Am I alone here?:confused:

You're not alone. Try living in Alaska, where our own country often treats us like another country entirely. I've actually had CS reps tell me, "We don't ship outside the United States." I usually hold my smaller wish list items at Woodcraft and Rockler until a visit to Seattle. The former isn't so bad on shipping but the latter charges pretty dearly. I haven't placed an order with Lee Valley since the website overhaul but it used to be that it couldn't compute my shipping charges in the shopping cart. They'd promptly e-mail me afterward with shipping options which weren't really all that bad considering distance and borders.

Amazon Prime usually works out pretty well but it's a real mixed bag. I can sometimes shop directly with the manufacturer/retailer, pay shipping and get the product cheaper and/or quicker than Prime. Other times, I'm greeted with angry red text in the item listing:


This item cannot be shipped to
your selected delivery location.
Please choose a different delivery
location.

Shipping for non-Prime items can vary from free, to reasonable, to the sublimely ridiculous:


435557

[David Bassett]

The smaller the company the closer to retail they pay for shipping. I know the few times I have to ship something I'm always surprised by retail non-volume shipping rates. (The quoted ~$8 priority mail rate is a bargain for shipping with tracking based on my last UPS attempt at a retail counter!)

Also remember picking something up isn't free, we just cover that cost in our daily living budget mentally and don't charge it to the product. (E,g, I figured a trip to our local Woodcraft costs me ~$4 in gas if I can take the 50+ mpg actual Prius and closer to $12 if I have to break out the van. Whether or not my item(s) are in stock.)

[Dave Lehnert]

Customers are funny. We have in our minds that shipping should be free, but it does cost the seller something.
We often will drive to a store to pick up an item to save the shipping cost. But fact is gas cost us something.
We will look at a $1,000 tool but cringe at a $30 shipping fee. But if the tool cost $1,100 and free shipping we would not think twice and be all over it.


I think shipping charges based on cost of the item is the only simple way a retailer can do it. If they charged actual shipping cost could you imagine all the emails asking "How much shipping to my zip code" Would you be willing to let them ship an item without first knowing the cost? I would not.

Like others have said. I keep a list of things I want and order once I reach free shipping amount.

[Frank Pratt]

The smaller the company the closer to retail they pay for shipping. I know the few times I have to ship something I'm always surprised by retail non-volume shipping rates. (The quoted ~$8 priority mail rate is a bargain for shipping with tracking based on my last UPS attempt at a retail counter!)

Also remember picking something up isn't free, we just cover that cost in our daily living budget mentally and don't charge it to the product. (E,g, I figured a trip to our local Woodcraft costs me ~$4 in gas if I can take the 50+ mpg actual Prius and closer to $12 if I have to break out the van. Whether or not my item(s) are in stock.)

Don't forget that the gas is just a small cost of running a vehicle. Some costs are there whether you drive or not, but the non-fuel operating costs & wear are very substantial.

One thing that really bugs me is calling it "free shipping". It's not. There's no such thing as a free lunch or free shipping.

[David Publicover]

I wouldn’t be surprised that by the time a company like LV processes a $16 order, picks the product and packs it in a box or envelope and creates a shipping label, they have lost money. That’s before they actually ship it. In any case, I’ve looked at my LV wish list and there is nothing on it remotely close to costing $16 so kudos for finding the stuff I might actually be able to afford lol!

[Frank Pratt]

Doesn't cost me much for delivery from Lee Valley cause it's 5 minutes from my office & on the way home :)

On the other hand, Lee Valley costs me plenty, cause it's 5 minutes from my office & on the way home.

[Bill Dufour]

Then I can buy cheap widget from China and have it delivered for under one dollar total cost. It would cost more for just the item at a store here. I do not think it is really legal but lots of folks will not ship to Alaska or Hawaii. I can see that if the item can not be sent by air. California does not allow a lot of plants or animals to be shipped in. I had the USDA knock on my door after I bought some bamboo seeds from China.
My Nephew lived in New Zealand and any package shipped to him was about 30 dollars US.. It is all by air not boats.
Bill
Bill D.

[Jim Koepke]

Try living in Alaska, where our own country often treats us like another country entirely. I've actually had CS reps tell me, "We don't ship outside the United States."

People in New Mexico have also had to deal with this lack of geographical knowledge or U.S. history.


I think shipping charges based on cost of the item is the only simple way a retailer can do it.

Some actually have intelligent staff and programmers. The weight of the product and packing is in their database and figured in when a person clicks the buy button.

jtk

[Bruce Wrenn]

Remember some retailers mentioned previously have zip code specific catalogues. Prices vary based upon zip code. So an item shipped to just across the street could actually cost more, or less than the other side of the street. As for shipping to a specific zip code, many vendors do that. You ask what it costs to ship to your zip code, and they figure it before placing my order. One vendor I use, its about a buck cheaper to pay shipping on orders under $35, than to use "free shipping."

[Lee DeRaud]

On the other hand, Lee Valley costs me plenty, cause it's 5 minutes from my office & on the way home.That was a running joke at work when Frys Electronics opened a store across the street in the mid-'90s: "Can we just have payroll direct-deposit our checks to Frys?"

(That was the Boeing/Rockwell campus in Anaheim, the last bits of which moved to Huntington Beach some years ago. Apparently the joke wasn't that funny to Frys, who closed the Anaheim store earlier this year, well before the coronavirus hit. But I hear the Fountain Valley store, just up the road from Huntington Beach, is doing quite well. :) )

[Lee DeRaud]

I had a Catch-22 on an item a couple of weeks ago. It was $51, on a "free shipping over $50" deal.

Turns out I needed two of them. When I logged on to order the second one, it showed up with a big red "PRICE REDUCED" banner. That made it $48...plus $8 for shipping.

[Brian Elfert]

Then I can buy cheap widget from China and have it delivered for under one dollar total cost. It would cost more for just the item at a store here. I do not think it is really legal but lots of folks will not ship to Alaska or Hawaii. I can see that if the item can not be sent by air. California does not allow a lot of plants or animals to be shipped in. I had the USDA knock on my door after I bought some bamboo seeds from China.


Why would it be illegal not to ship to Alaska or Hawaii?

I know shipping to Alaska via Fedex Ground or UPS Ground is super expensive. I was selling something on Ebay about five years ago and was offering flat rate shipping anywhere in the USA (Alaska and Hawaii too) for like $20. It was an auction that also had a Buy It Now price. Someone from Anchorage, Alaska snapped it up at the BIN price. After I found out UPS Ground and Fedex Ground were both $225 to Anchorage I realized why he snapped it up. Luckily, Priority Mail was only $40 or $50 so it turned out okay for me.

I wonder if companies don't want to ship to Alaska or Hawaii due to high shipping costs? How many people would buy a set of $500 headlights if the shipping was nearly half the cost of the item?

[Brian Elfert]

I look at the bottom line delivered to my door price when buying stuff online. There have been plenty of times when a site had a cheap price on a small item, but the shipping made it more expensive than other places. I have often bought an extra item I would use in the future to get the total over a threshold for free shipping or a discount. Once I added a stupid filler item to an order to qualify for a significant discount.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I had a Catch-22 on an item a couple of weeks ago. It was $51, on a "free shipping over $50" deal.

Turns out I needed two of them. When I logged on to order the second one, it showed up with a big red "PRICE REDUCED" banner. That made it $48...plus $8 for shipping.


Them cookies got you! That's why I clear history after visiting sites.

[Jim Koepke]

Recently purchased a 1/2" lock mortise or swan neck chisel on ebay. It was at a buy it now price with shipping included. My attention must not have been present because one of my reasons for picking this one was it didn't look like it was coming from overseas. Sure enough, it was coming from Great Britain. Took a couple of weeks. It set the seller back £18.50 for shipping. More than half the total selling price.

jtk

[Lee DeRaud]

More fun and games...sometimes you have to wonder how they stay in business.

About four weeks back, I ordered a SO-SIMM RAM module to max out my new laptop. This was direct from Crucial/Micron since I used their system scanner app to determine the correct part number. (Probably the 4th or 5th time I've gotten memory from them.) They shipped it the next day, but unfortunately they used that wonderful hybrid, UPS Mail Innovations, which uses USPS for 'last mile' delivery. Following the tracking info, it got to the local USPS distro center about when expected, and then just sat there. And sat there. And sat there. After a week or so, I contacted Crucial's CS people to have them push it along. Another week, it's still at USPS. (Mind you, that distro center is like three miles from my house.) Contacted Crucial again, they threw their hands in the air, refunded me, and asked me to contact them if it ever showed up.

So I ordered the same part from Newegg that same day, it showed up the following afternoon, and $2 cheaper. Lesson learned: get the part number from Crucial, buy it from somebody with a SoCal warehouse.

Five days later, the package shows up in my mailbox, presumably recovered from whatever hole it had fallen into. I call Crucial, they email me a return label, I drop it off at UPS. Turns out, for the return of a $35 memory module, they paid for 2nd Day Air. Just for curiosity, I tracked it back to Boise: it went (this is not a joke) from Anaheim to San Diego to Louisville to Salt Lake City to Boise...all in 37 hours.

A truly perfect shake-my-head moment.

[Anuj Prateek]

It's actually a little more than that. Apart from sale volume and prime fees there is predictive shipping and warehouse restocking. Essentially, being a volume business there are multiple options to absorb cost.

https://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/machinelearningtimes/amazon-knows-what-you-want-before-you-buy-it/3185/

On original thread, yup it's frustrating. Recently, we moved to Canada and it's a little more worse. Less websites and higher prices. I just wait till I have enough things to buy or sometimes I buy from some other website that has higher price but low shipping.

Thankfully, Lee Valley is only few miles from my home. I am loving store pickup.



Disclaimer: I work at Amazon.

[David Publicover]

It's actually a little more than that. Apart from sale volume and prime fees there is predictive shipping and warehouse restocking. Essentially, being a volume business there are multiple options to absorb cost.

https://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/machinelearningtimes/amazon-knows-what-you-want-before-you-buy-it/3185/

On original thread, yup it's frustrating. Recently, we moved to Canada and it's a little more worse. Less websites and higher prices. I just wait till I have enough things to buy or sometimes I buy from some other website that has higher price but low shipping.

Thankfully, Lee Valley is only few miles from my home. I am loving store pickup.



Disclaimer: I work at Amazon.

Welcome to Canada!
I agree that shipping and selection is more challenging here. UPS can be outrageously expensive crossing the border, for example and some US companies won’t ship at all. You are lucky to live near a LV store although I’m not sure you’re saving much. When I drop into the Halifax store, a few hours away, i always leave with more than was on my list! My wife would prefer I stayed out and just paid the shipping lol!

[Michael J Evans]

I am a young guy, so almost my whole adult life so far everything has been free shipping from the big names. I think it has really ruined it for small businesses like I work for. People now have the expectation that everything is free shipping and 2 day delivery. I have also been ruined by it, I recently bought something off of here and when my wife found out I payed 30 in shipping I thought she was gonna slap me lol. Small companies like mine have no control what ups charges us. I think the minimum we get charged to ship a small package across the road is about $12. You can't even really negotiate with them. Sometimes I wonder is ups/FedEx/USPS are subsidizing Amazon's rates and charging everyone else more.
But sometimes shipping something even when it's half the price of the item is in reality cheaper. My wife wanted some clothes from the mall which is about 50 mins away. Shipping cost was 8, she was going to drive because of it. I broke down the math that 50 miles of driving at 13mpg is over $8 in gas.

[Anuj Prateek]

Welcome to Canada!
I agree that shipping and selection is more challenging here. UPS can be outrageously expensive crossing the border, for example and some US companies won’t ship at all. You are lucky to live near a LV store although I’m not sure you’re saving much. When I drop into the Halifax store, a few hours away, i always leave with more than was on my list! My wife would prefer I stayed out and just paid the shipping lol!

Thanks David!

Yup! Whenever, I go for picking up my order, I roam around and end up buying more stuff 😁.

Recently, got cashback from US Costco. With blessing of SO, ended up with Rikon slow speed grinder. One can't have too many means of sharpening. Went inside to pick it up, came out another $50 dollars lighter and items in my wishlist.

[Brian Elfert]

Amazon is doing a lot of shipping and delivery itself so I doubt the other shippers are giving Amazon special deals. Fedex quit dealing with Amazon last year.

[Bert Kemp]

@ M.J Evans ....and I thought I got terrible gas mileage at 18mpg

[dennis thompson]

I know I'm going to be seen as an old grouch and a cheapskate, I won't argue with that, but It drives me nuts when I order $16 worth of stuff from Lee Valley or anybody else,and the shipping is $8 or half the cost of the items I purchased.:(
Am I alone here?:confused:

Well, maybe $8 isn't too bad. I just clicked on an ad for TersaKnives and you get free shipping with an order of $250!:eek:

[Jim Becker]

Well, maybe $8 isn't too bad. I just clicked on an ad for TersaKnives and you get free shipping with an order of $250!:eek:

With TersaKnives, they are shipping from Canada so when you account for that plus the fact that their prices are much lower than many places, buying from them, even if you have to pay shipping, is still less money. It's the total cost that counts. I had a conversation with them not long ago and they are a small "mom and pop" business that doesn't have the volume to be able to setup a US warehouse like Lee Valley has, etc.

[Brian Elfert]

Well, maybe $8 isn't too bad. I just clicked on an ad for TersaKnives and you get free shipping with an order of $250!:eek:

Not all that unusual. I was on a website the other day where the free shipping threshold was $1,000.