I really wanted to address this after experiencing multiple failed dahlia wars through the buying season this year. So many people have the same feedback about astronomical shipping rates. I mean from an outsiders perspective $17 for a couple of tubers to be shipped does sound ridiculous. But in a day and age where we are so accustomed to getting our online items fast and cheaply, we fail to understand that small flowers growers are not multibillion dollar conglomerates that can amortize shipping items across many times in order to “even things out”.
We especially ran into this when we began setting up our store items. Discussing shipping felt so vague to me and I truly had no idea how to even approach the subject of what an appropriate cost of shipping would be. Thankfully Kev has some historical experience in the area, and knew what needed to be considered and was already working out what would be the most effective way for us to consider shipping our items to places other than our regional area, where we had already set up pick up and drop off locations. We still haven’t fully settled on exactly what that will look like, but what makes the most sense to me right now is using USPS flat rate shipping boxes. They are uniform, easy, and used by many other flower farms to ship their goods as well.
With that snapshot, I instantly understood why shipping rates were so high, it’s because shipping items is expensive. There is no mark up here, no big money maker in over changing a customer with a perceived high shipping rate. Shipping rates are high because they are high. Shipping a medium sized flat rate box with USPS is, at the time of this writing, a little over $17. A small one will run you a little over $11.
I think we need to better understand that. I don’t want to charge such a high rate for shipping, as I know that it can be a turn off to the entire process of buying anything as it turns me off too, but I have absolutely no control on what shipping providers charge for shipping. I am not out here trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes with the shipping rate, and I highly doubt other farmers and growers, or even small businesses alike are doing the same, given that their rates are also very similarly priced. It is on us, as customers and consumers, to understand in an age of instant gratification and doing so, so cheaply, that the reality of the situation is that, shipping isn’t cheap. We have just been lulled into a place of complacency from years of “free” shipping from multibillion dollar conglomerates.
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