COVID WAS THE EXCUSE USED TO JACK UP SHIPPING RATES 20-40%
During COVID, fuel prices were raised for no actual reason except they could get away with it. This in turn increased the costs of transportation of goods. Vendors and their careers took advantage of the excuse to shift shipping costs from big online businesses like Am8z8n to small businesses. The result was that shipping costs for us little vendors went up 20% to 40%.
Online retailers that offer "free" shipping actually add 20% to 50% to the cost of the item to subsidize the "free" shipping. Because most of the customers I serve are in my local community and pick-up, I don't want to raise the prices of all my items to subsidize "free" shipping for a few. When you add up the cost of the items and the cost of shipping, I hope you will see that Anarres is good value.
THE PACKAGING ANARRES USES AND SELLS ARE MADE IN CHINA AND DISTRIBUTED THROUGH THE US. TARIFFS COULD RAISE PRICES UP TO 40%.
The Free Trade Agreement with the US in the 1980s practically eliminated glass manufacturing and recycling on Ontario. As big business in the US and Canada shifted manufacturing to China, that country became virtually the only source for glass, plastic and metal packaging. The amber glass bottles that used to come from Austria were no more. I learned to keep a few suppliers of the same item, local, afar and very far in case of shortages. I learned to compare the actual cost of items after adding together unit cost, currency exchange, penalties on currency exchange., insurance, shipping, handling, brokerage and other customs fees. When importing, the cost of the item easily doubles when you add it all up. The cost of storage never really hit home until I had to rent a storage locker for $800 a month. The time, effort and care in sourcing, arranging, moving, storing and administering packaging stock is... a lot. Now I understand that I'll never get the actual costs back in sales.
PACKAGING DISTRIBUTORS ARE NO LONGER OFFERING SMALL QUANTITIES.
Distributors facing increased shipping costs, real estate costs and now tariffs are looking to decrease costs by decreasing the labour involved in breaking up shipments and cases into smaller orders and limiting service to low volume customers.
BOYCOTT PAYPAL.
REUSING AND REFILLING CONTAINERS IS NOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER!