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Here are some sample
Shipping and
Handling rates for various States. For detailed
information at how we arrived at these, keep reading.
About 30% of shopping carts are
abandoned when the customer finds out what the shipping will cost
be. We'd like to keep that from happening if possible with us
by explaining our shipping system.
Background, if you're interested.
If not, just skip down to the next section.
When we started
shipping, we were stunned to see the amazing differences in shipping
prices charged by nurseries. There, quite literally, seemed to be no
rhyme or reason to them. Basing shipping on a percentage of the
order seems absurd to us. (If you order 10 Hostas in gallons that cost
$7.00 each (or a $70 order) you would pay the same shipping as someone who
ordered 2 Hostas that cost $35 each. Well, duh, it doesn't cost the
same to mail 10 gallons as 2 gallons but many companies do this. In
the words of Star Trek's Spock, it seemed "Illogical". So, we ruled that method out.
Being the mental
wizards that we are, we said, hm-m-m, the Post Office charges us by weight
per box. That seemed the logical way to charge our
customers -- by the number of plants and, thus, their weight in a box. This
way, shipping becomes as accurate
as we can make it. We
agree, that the fees often seem high.
(Remember, they have to do something to stay in business now that almost
no one sends letters anymore -- but sends E-Mails instead!) And UPS is no
less expensive for 2-3 day service, plus in our experience
with our local service, at least,
rougher
on plants than the Post Office.
Want
to compare us to other online nurseries?
When you're comparing shipping rates, take into consideration pot size and
shipping method AND whether they include handling in the plant price or
include it in shipping. One big company , for example, ships mostly 3"
pots by UPS 5-7 day ground. We don't grow anything in a 3 inch pot
and feel
plants need to be in your hands in 2-3 days -- so, our rates are higher,
our plants are bigger and they don't sit in dark box with no water for 7
days so when they get to you they're happy plants that look like they were
just picked up at a nursery. Also, we tell you what size our plants are. Many
companies do not EVEN THOUGH IT'S THE LAW. If you search long enough on a site, you may find
out their pot size and/or that they ship bare root which weighs much less.
So when comparing
shipping rates between companies, you can't really do it at a glance.
We could barely do it after we worked on it for weeks. If there ever
was a case of comparing apples and oranges, shipping rates for plants by Mail Order
is it!
Our Shipping and
Handling Rates and Policies.
After much
research, we decided on actual online USPS
Priority Mail rates plus $1.35 per plant handling
which covers (barely):
Office time, office supplies, paperwork,
boxes, bamboo stakes, shipping and care labels,
tape, a puller (someone to go pull the plants and ready them for shipping),
and a packer
(someone to pack them).
We don't just
'throw plants and shipping peanuts' into a box and ship. This is
what a box of our plants look like: Packed
Plants and Packed Plants2.
They arrive in beautiful condition, consistently, even in hot weather but
this great packing takes time -- about 27 minutes for 6 plants! The
'Handling' fee covers paying someone to see to it that the plant arrives
at your door looking as if you drove here and picked it up.
Other particulars
about Shipping and Handling:
1. We
have a 6 plant Handling Minimum.
You do not have to buy 6 plants nor pay shipping on any plants but those
you actually order but we do have a 6 plant Handling
Minimum which covers the Packer, the Box, order prep, labels, box, etc. -- things that are just
about the same whether it's 1 plant or 6 plants. 6 plants x $1.35 or
$8.10 minimum.
1a. This makes small
orders, less than 6 plants very costly from the standpoint of shipping and
handling BUT it allows people to only order 1 plant so the final amount of
money they spend is much less than if we had a minimum order rather than a
minimum handling fee.
2. Hostas are grown
in larger containers and the have loose soil knocked off and are
repotted in quarts for shipment.
3. A quart plant, boxed and packed
weighs an average of 1.7 pounds. It varies with the plant,
amount of foliage and soil moisture content. In summer, our plants weigh more because
we have the soil totally saturated before shipping.
Here are some sample
Shipping and
Handling rates for various States.
Note: We reserve the right, with
online notice, to change the
shipping rates at any time we find we're losing money or the postal rates
go up.!
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