Happy Canada Day, eh?
A few readers have emailed me to ask why I am going to the States to pick up my orders. Well, the answer is simple and can be answered in two, er I mean, two and a half words. I'm cheap!
You see, our Canadian shipping rates are ridiculously high. And, if I have orders shipped from the States to my shop, you wouldn't believe the cost. Shipping usually adds a dollar to a skein of yarn. That's right, a dollar and sometimes even more. So, it was a decision I had to make. In order to get the cool yarns that you just can't get anywhere - such as Berroco, Dream In Color, Tilli Tomas, Kraemer to name a few, I get the orders shipped to a UPS store in Evans Mills NY and take a couple of hours on a Monday when my store is closed to go pick them up. Consequently, I charge US prices for these yarns and books saving my customers money - 20% or more on books alone.
The whole "picking up in the States" started last year when I wanted to get the book "Seven Ways to Make Or Break A Sweater" by Margaret Fisher. (By the way, I always call that book "Seven Ways to Wreck a Sweater"). Margaret self publishes and only has three distributors for the book, and none of them ship to Canada. So, I found a really nice distributor that was willing to work with me in shipping to the UPS store. Then, I got a little braver and had some more books and a couple of yarn orders shipped to arrive at approximately the same time. It worked brilliantly. And clearing the orders through Canada Customs is getting easier each time - I'm getting really good at figuring out the product classifications now.
To give a recent example of crazy shipping charges, I ordered 50 skeins of undyed yarns from Kraemer, and I wasn't planning a trip to Evans Mills, so I had it shipped to my shop. It took over two weeks - and I was in a rush for the yarn - to get here and the price for shipping via USPS was $49.89. Now, if I had been able to take the time to pick it up in the States, the shipping would have been about $8, plus a $5 handling fee from UPS and I would have had the yarn in 2 days. Even when the price of gasoline is factored in, it still would have saved about $20 to drive and pick it up.
I do order Canadian products from Canadian suppliers as much as possible....but there are so many things that just aren't available up here that I want to offer to my customers.
So, with that explanation, Happy Canada Day! Let the fireworks begin.
You see, our Canadian shipping rates are ridiculously high. And, if I have orders shipped from the States to my shop, you wouldn't believe the cost. Shipping usually adds a dollar to a skein of yarn. That's right, a dollar and sometimes even more. So, it was a decision I had to make. In order to get the cool yarns that you just can't get anywhere - such as Berroco, Dream In Color, Tilli Tomas, Kraemer to name a few, I get the orders shipped to a UPS store in Evans Mills NY and take a couple of hours on a Monday when my store is closed to go pick them up. Consequently, I charge US prices for these yarns and books saving my customers money - 20% or more on books alone.
The whole "picking up in the States" started last year when I wanted to get the book "Seven Ways to Make Or Break A Sweater" by Margaret Fisher. (By the way, I always call that book "Seven Ways to Wreck a Sweater"). Margaret self publishes and only has three distributors for the book, and none of them ship to Canada. So, I found a really nice distributor that was willing to work with me in shipping to the UPS store. Then, I got a little braver and had some more books and a couple of yarn orders shipped to arrive at approximately the same time. It worked brilliantly. And clearing the orders through Canada Customs is getting easier each time - I'm getting really good at figuring out the product classifications now.
To give a recent example of crazy shipping charges, I ordered 50 skeins of undyed yarns from Kraemer, and I wasn't planning a trip to Evans Mills, so I had it shipped to my shop. It took over two weeks - and I was in a rush for the yarn - to get here and the price for shipping via USPS was $49.89. Now, if I had been able to take the time to pick it up in the States, the shipping would have been about $8, plus a $5 handling fee from UPS and I would have had the yarn in 2 days. Even when the price of gasoline is factored in, it still would have saved about $20 to drive and pick it up.
I do order Canadian products from Canadian suppliers as much as possible....but there are so many things that just aren't available up here that I want to offer to my customers.
So, with that explanation, Happy Canada Day! Let the fireworks begin.
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