If you need industrial stuff and parts, you might check into a deal with Grainger. I belong to the PA Farm Bureau, mostly because the membership fee of $70 is far exceeded by the 10% discount I get on Nationwide Insurance. I also get a discount and free shipping from Grainger. I recently bought three 6' long stainless steel rods that were packed in a long mailing tube and shipped to my door-all for $5.80. No typo.
So you order a part from 6 states away. Some one pulls the part, puts it in a box. Makes a label and notifies the shipper. It gets on a truck and gets to the hub. Then gets on another truck and then boards a plane. Then another truck to another hub. In another truck and to your doorstep for 25dollars. Sounds pretty dam cheap to me. And you want it shipped for 10 dollars.
Shipping costs what it costs, nobody is arguing that. When they start padding the shipping charges is what has folks steamed, and rightly so. Let them know you're in the area "I'll just drop by and pick it up" and watch them squirm, that's one way to tell.
I hear you and I do appreciate what "shipping" really represents. My issues is when a quarter sized part that could be shipped in an envelope comes in a foot square box or a seriously undamagable part comes with so much packaging that the box, and hence the cost of shipping the box, are huge. Common sense is often not a part of thr shipping equation.
Maybe we should have someone who works in the shipping department log on and tell us how this all works. Are there daily quotas that have to be met for better rates or is there a minimum for daily pickups for the big truck to show up everyday. Or is it a low paying job in the warehouse. So it would be hard to find good help. Hire a new guy so he starts in the shipping department. Seems like this is an important job to me. If he screws up, someone will hop on facebook and tell everybody.
Normally that is how I buy most anything be it direct from a company, off Amazon, Off Ebay or how ever, plus I quite often check local sources and compare buying locally vs buying online and paying shipping costs. On small somewhat inexpensive items it is quite often less expensive in the long run to buy local and be done with it. Also if you ask most parts houses and supply houses will bring an item in with the regular stock order. No freight that way. Some outfits and I think Fastenal is one will transfer items between stores on their truck at no added fee. You have to wait an extra day or two sometimes but if you aren't in a rush the saving is worth the wait. I was selling a lot of stuff on Ebay for a while and worked it one of two ways. On the college text books I was selling for my wife I priced them out at a competitive price with priority mail shipping included.
Between the higher shipping costs and the recent FCC announcement concerning the internet maybe swap meets will get a much needed boost. Nothing beats the thrill of the hunt and the friendly negotiations. Can't wait till spring.
Shipping isn't only a problem for the buyer of online stuff and or the seller who sells online and ships. It's a problem for the small businesses that sell retail to local people after having the item(s) shipped to them from the wholesaler. For the past 15 or so years I have been an independent Amsoil dealer for synthetic lubricants. Amsoil tends to specialize their lubricants for specific uses and applications to a great degree. Consequently, I have to stock $2-3000 in oils just to have what my customers need. Even then sometimes I may slip up and get too low on some particular type of oil. And the oil filters? That's a story in itself. Would take $multi thousands to stock all the ones used. The oil is shipped via UPS, as are the filters, to me. And since I'm stocking these items at my shop, which is 1&1/2 miles from my home and "Inna Hood", they are shipped to my home, and I carry them to the shop. And that's getting tough @ 80 years old. Now to top it off, for the past year I've had to get UPS to hold all my deliveries at their local terminal, where I go and pick them up, because of thieves following the trucks around and stealing packages off porches. Got me last year just a bit before Christmas in broad daylight. This year they've even taken to stealing the whole truck, driving off and emptying it of packages, then abandoning the truck. Cost to me is now close to a buck a quart on oil for shipping, and the cost of shipping a single oil filter is more than the markup between wholesale and retail. The whole deal is becoming more of a nuisance than a small source of extra income.
The post office has flat rate shipping on boxes that they supply and it includes tracking and up to $50 insurance. https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail.htm
Sure, all you need is to get MAC's to use them. Also, since it's "shipping and handling" whatever is saved in shipping will be assessed as "handling". Some of that, of course, is reasonable because someone has to pull the part and pack it. MAC's now seems dedicated to taking this to the extreme. I liked them a lot when it was a family biz in Lockport
I've heard there's a UPS truck leaving every hour from Summit in Sparks Nevada. I live in SoCal and get parts on the second day and actually got one the next day by ordering before 7:00am. I always look for what I need from anyone by part number. Catalogs are advertisement and written off in taxes like their sponsorships in drag racing. I throw them away after removing the address.
Shippers get cheaper rates than use regular folks do. I'll still try to buy from Joes on the East coast if I need Ford stuff. Had very good transactions with him/them.
Yep, and get a substitute or temp hire for when the regular gets a day off or goes on vacation... who shows up "whenever". Nobody gives a fuck. Ever notice USPS doesn't get say, the frozen steak deliveries out of Omaha? There's a reason for that.
I reciently sold a Y Block Ford B intake. Anyone could have walked up and bought it for $100. I advertised it In the HAMB classifieds for $175.00 shipped in the lower 48. The post office charged me $71 shipping and I spent $5 on tape to package it and then still had to drive 15 miles to the post office. Ever since the fuel went above $4 several years ago. Shipping cost have risen much higher.
I disagree. Employee costs are factored into the markup of the item to retail costs over wholesale costs. Shipping costs I understand. Handling costs shouldn't exist. Think about it this way. You walk into your favourite clothing store. The cute girl working the floor helps you pick out a few shirts, carries them up to the cash, rings you out and bags the shirts for you. She doesn't then ask you for $5 for her help carrying and bagging your shirts. I've been to Mac's probably a dozen times, sometimes for an hour or more. Most of those trips, I've been the only customer in the store the entire time I was there. The employee(s) are being paid, whether there is a customer in the store or not. So as part of being paid, they should be pulling orders and boxing for shipping when not dealing with customers. Now, I know that Eckler's bought Mac's and has relocated shipping out of the Carolina's (?), but centralized shipping is supposed to cut down on shipping costs and save the company and the consumer. Seems not to be the case in terms of Mac's customers.
That's not quite true. Employee costs have to go "somewhere". That might be in the price of the item, although typically what's built into the price are the fixed costs-things like utilities, mortgage or building costs, maintenance, insurance,etc. You could put your "what it costs to ship it charges in too, but then your catalog item price would go up. So most places charge those as handling, or just say "shipping" when they really mean S&H. It is all well and good to say, "Handling costs shouldn't exist" but they still do.
Oh, I'm fully aware they still do. That's why I said they "shouldn't", not "don't". I will argue that employee costs are built into the mark up on product. If they weren't, we'd have employee charges on top of the product and shipping and handling costs. Back to my shirt reference, the shirt costs the same whether ten employees are working, or one. Price point is set to factor in wholesale costs, fixed costs, projected employee expenses and profit margin. From this thread, there's a lot of pretty clear testimonial that: 1. Mac's charges shipping based on item cost, not actual shipping costs. 2. Mac's does not take the time to economically package items. If you're going to charge handling, then actually 'handle' the product - take the time to package it in the smallest box necessary, and charge the actual shipping cost. I would argue that on most purchases, if there was a flat $10 handling fee, but Mac's charged actual shipping costs, the customer would come out ahead. Instead, the current flat fee model actually results in shipping and handling being an income topper. For arguments sake, say the average order overcharges shipping by $5. That $5 isn't directly given to the employees for their 'handling' and isn't factored into the cost of the product. If Mac's did 100 orders a month (probably VERY conservative) and overcharged shipping by $5 per order, that'd be $6,000 a year... Extrapolate up accordingly. And we won't get into the fact that most shipping is calculated based on straight forward shipping calculators (weight and box dimensions) and doesn't take into account bulk shipping discounts that companies get.
I have no problem with anything you've said. Sadly, places like MAC's won't get that they'd do more business, and make more money, if they charged for "shipping" fairly. A pound of bolts doesn't take up the same space as a pound of foam insulation and they don't have to be shipped in the same size box, either. Case in point-I recently ordered a license plate surround for a friend's "new" '66 Mustang. The same part from the same manufacturer was available for virtually identical prices from two vendors. One had free shipping included. Guess which I ordered from? And, it came first class in a padded envelope. And, I'll order from them again.
I absolutely agree with you there! Customer service, and quality of service makes all the difference.
HA! You got that right. I have a screened in porch and "most" of the time UPS and Fedex will open the door and put my boxes in there. USPS NEVER does. Maybe it's company policy, I don't know. I came home one day a while back, had two boxes from UPS on the porch, one from USPS on the steps outside, in the rain.
In all fairness, my rural USPS mail carrier comes down my driveway, up on the porch and puts anything to big to fit in the mailbox inside the "mudroom" door. Always has. I can't ask for more than that. I appreciate someone who, whatever their job, makes the effort to do the best they can.
All the delivery guys here put the packages between the doors if they fit or on the steps if they don't. and give a knock.
Just received my order from Joe's. Window channels, a glove box, and a bunch of misc. small door parts. Came UPS in a 29x16x7 box. Total order was $186.00 of which $32.00 was shipping. Came from Mass. to Calif. Ordered it on the 14th and it was on my front porch on the 20th. Hate to think what it shipping costs would have been from Macs!
Try $235 for running board covers from a business and then asking $280 to ship them to Australia. It only cost me $100 to ship a full rear end rebuild kit. $280 is outrageous.
I agree, but what are your options? Clearly the supplier is either not familiar with shipping to Australia, or is familiar and doesn't want the hassle. You need to find a "friendly" and have them bring them to you as a present.
^^^^^^^ running boards in a suitcase on a flight to Australia , tell the customs bloke they,re your snow shoes for the upcoming global climate change . But surely you can find that in Australia.
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