Pickup vs Shipping

[MilosCandles]

I wish so much I lived closer to a place to go pickup my items.  I have tried to rationalize going to pickup supplies soo many times but in the end can just not do it.

 

The closet place to me (I think) is Natures Garden which is just over 4 hours away.  

 

I just placed a large FO order from them and it was ~$80 Shipping,  and then If I place a larger wax order It would not be over $200 shipping.  So I could save $280 but spend 8+ hours and in my SUV I would spend ~$85 just in gas, maybe more with a full load on the way home.  OHHH and have to take a day off from my real job cause none of these places are ever open on the weekends.

 

2 Hours ( 4 hours Round Trip) I could totally justify.  How far do you travel to pickup items?  What is your limit?

 

I did contact Golden Brands last year (AAK) about a wholesale purchase of wax.   LMOA  One of the statements was..  "We do have a minimum of 21,600Lbs of wax that must be ordered per order." Yes that is 432 boxes of 50lbs wax.  I did not continue to email them after that.  I have no where to even put that much wax right now.  Unless they could just leave the tractor trailer in my driveway for the next 2 years that would be OK

 

Maybe in January I will analyze my wax usage from previous year and shipping costs, how much I could legitimately fit (volume and weight) in my SUV and make a large wax purchase that way. 

 

 

[TallTayl]

Have you looked into LTL shipping? Sometimes a pallet load or two can be fairly reasonable. For instance, a kiln I ordered from half way across the country was like $25 to ship to my driveway with gate service.

 

UShip used to be a good place to bid out shipping like this. 

 

My Fedex account through the handmade cosmetics and soap guild offers decent freight rates, at least better than driving myself. It’s one thing if I am in the already already, and another if I have to take a day off to save what amounts to nothing. 

[franu61]

I travel to Reno once a year and pick up from candlescience (about 8 hours away).  But we make it a family get together, I meet up with my bro and sis along the way. We spend the night and lose money at the casinos.  We split costs of room and meals and gas.  And I can write off some of it for business.  I  would never drive that far just for pickup.

Edited September 24, 2019 by franu61

[Candybee]

I do it a couple of times a year. I live in Northern VA and drive out to C&S in Quakertown, PA then swing by Fillmore in Lancaster, PA. It takes just under 4 hrs to get to C&S. Fillmore is sort of on the way back so I swing around to stop there. All in all its a full day trip with about 8 hrs of driving. Last trip was about $60 in gas but I saved about $120 in shipping costs above the cost of gas. So it is well worth it to me. I just went about 2 weeks ago and and bought all the wax and jars I need for the fall and holiday season. I also picked up some FOs too. 

[Sarah S]

I'm lucky, Candlewic is just a couple of hours away Fromm me, and it's sort of on the way to visit my family in NJ. So I do that's detour a couple times a year and I get a few cases of wax, a few pounds of FO, etc.

Fillmore is also just a couple of hours away, but that would be a major detour. Just not worth my time. I discovered that if I have my cases of glass shipped to my work, just over the PA border, it is about $10 cheaper than having it shipped to my house. And I only live 8 miles away from my work!! Crazy! So I just have stuff shipped there now, lol.

[MilosCandles]

16 hours ago, Sarah S said:

I discovered that if I have my cases of glass shipped to my work, just over the PA border, it is about $10 cheaper than having it shipped to my house. And I only live 8 miles away from my work!! Crazy! So I just have stuff shipped there now, lol.

 

My day time job moved basically across the street to a new office, it was a new zip code **201 to **202 and shipping with most of our vendors dropped a few dollars.