This thread is full of good ideas and information about $1-$3 products and int'l shipping agreements, but the "$.03 button" mystery is almost certainly simply an edge case that no one cares about. It's a rare purchase that is subsidized by the massively larger volume of people buying 1000-button batches or what-have-you.
A free shipping mystery
61–70 of 202 posts
Re: A free shipping mystery
#62It's a combination of subsidies in China [2] and really low Universal Postal Union rates for terminal delivery from China to the US.[1] Terminal delivery in the US is about $1/Kg. Market rate from Shentzen to Long Beach to ship a container is about $1200 right now. [1] http://fortune.com/2015/03/11/united-nations-subsidy-chinese... [2] http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/cp396.pdf
In the Netherlands our postal service has already stopped delivering packages from China to your door ( very recently ). They just slip in a statement 'pick up here & here'. I guess they thought it was too much work too.
Still getting my sub-dollar stuff from China delivered at my doorstep in the Netherlands. Then again, I'm A3 at Ali ;)
Re: A free shipping mystery
#63Here's an article from 2014 that explains this "loophole" https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/09/12/...
From the article: > All this should be a reminder that any trade deal has winners and losers and unintended consequences. Obviously, whoever you subsidize is a winner. If you're setting up barriers to trade (e.g. tariffs), foreign sellers/manufacturers lose. If you're subsidizing imports, domestic sellers/manufacturers lose. Why can't we just not subsidize anyone ?! Free trade is supposed to be just that, free . Inst…
Free trade requires both sides to be equally free. Tariffs are one of the defenses against another nation massively subsidizing an export. Getting all countries to play fair (in this case neither subsidizing or taxing) isn't going to happen. You also run into the interesting situation of what is a subsidy that impacts exports/imports?
For example, post great depression america started tax subsidy for farmers to ensure a stable food supply. That hurts imports of the same product. Another interesting example is minimum wage, it makes imports more attractive, as domestic labor costs go up. Not getting into what is right/wrong, simply that economic incentives are not uniform and may be defensive. Hence international trade tries to deal with that via accords, treaties, tariffs etc.
Not to mention to that tariffs are a source of revenue for the respective government.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#64As an aside, I've been screwed several times by Prime's "guaranteed two-day" shipping. I had package which was very late December last year. When I went to the USPS tracking page to check the location, it turns out Amazon had requested the 8 day shipping option. After several angry calls I finally had the item cancelled and a new one on the way with Saturday shipping (the lower-tier rep said that it wasn't possible,…
You have to ask for the prime extension. I've ordered probably 100 items and the few times an item was late I just chatted with an amazon rep and a month of prime was added.
I can confirm this works. I only do it when I really needed the item on time and got screwed. I believe each account is limited to X requests, currently about 10 according to some folks on Slickdeals.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#65As an aside, I've been screwed several times by Prime's "guaranteed two-day" shipping. I had package which was very late December last year. When I went to the USPS tracking page to check the location, it turns out Amazon had requested the 8 day shipping option. After several angry calls I finally had the item cancelled and a new one on the way with Saturday shipping (the lower-tier rep said that it wasn't possible,…
Next day shipping for Amazon UK is pretty reliable, but I have to say I'm relived every time delivery is by someone other than "Amazon Logistics". Last time they delivered a parcel (value ~£100) I got an email saying it had been left in "my preferred safe space" (which I have never set) and had to go looking for it. Turn out they had left in my bin, at 9pm the night before the bins were due to be emptied.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem might be Amazon here in this specific case, but I'd hazard a guess that this is just a subset of the massive drop-off in service that Amazon is experiencing due to a major transition to using USPS instead of UPS. Here in NYC Amazon delivery has gone from being amazing and magical to nearly worthless seemingly overnight with this change. UPS (and Fedex) didn't seem to have any trouble delivering even to ch…
NYC's USPS is notoriously unreliable, especially for those of us without the luxury of doormen. Despite living in a nice neighborhood with a vestibule that would certainly house a package just fine - and then include that the postman has keys to get to just outside my apt door - USPS packages are routinely lost, yet "delivered". Amazon at least mitigates this loss risk by unquestionably resending the package without…
> Amazon at least mitigates this loss risk by unquestionably resending the package without additional charge. This exercise has grown tiresome.
It's interesting that Amazon finds this to be cheaper than shipping it properly to begin with. Although it makes sense if packages sent through USPS are low-value and not just small.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#67The postal service is a networked delivery service, just like the Internet. The difference is that the data packets are physical envelopes. Now, the cost of running the postal service is the cost of supporting the whole network of delivery vans, sorting offices, collections and so on, including all the staff. The cost of supporting the network is the same whether it carries a very large number of packets or zero pack…
I don't buy this argument. This might explain free shipping to France (the country), but not free delivery to the OP (the physical address). There's not way you can make even a short 1km delivery profitable for 3 cents (except if you're delivering for a whole building at once , which seems very unlikely).
The point is that transaction is not profitable but overall the system is.
They get soaked on the 3c button, but as most people dont do this, they can absorb that cost and subsidize it with the rest of their profits.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#68Here's an article from 2014 that explains this "loophole" https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/09/12/...
From the article: > All this should be a reminder that any trade deal has winners and losers and unintended consequences. Obviously, whoever you subsidize is a winner. If you're setting up barriers to trade (e.g. tariffs), foreign sellers/manufacturers lose. If you're subsidizing imports, domestic sellers/manufacturers lose. Why can't we just not subsidize anyone ?! Free trade is supposed to be just that, free . Inst…
Labor and environmental laws. They make manufacturing more expensive in the progressive countries that have them. Then they can't compete without tariffs or subsidies.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#69It's a combination of subsidies in China [2] and really low Universal Postal Union rates for terminal delivery from China to the US.[1] Terminal delivery in the US is about $1/Kg. Market rate from Shentzen to Long Beach to ship a container is about $1200 right now. [1] http://fortune.com/2015/03/11/united-nations-subsidy-chinese... [2] http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/cp396.pdf
The author is from France. Is terminal delivery as cheap in Europe?
Besides, 10 days by sea?
Re: A free shipping mystery
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Once you need to send a truck to someone's house, have someone get out and drop off one letter then adding a second letter has a tiny extra marginal cost. Further, there are some fuel savings from sending an air craft 1/4 full vs. 3/4 full but again there minimal in comparison to keeping the aircraft flying in the first place. Thus, from the post offices perspective they are much better off with a steady stream of tr…
Sure, but once the truck is full, sending one more letter needs an entire second truck. Average this across the system, and a route's costs per parcel are roughly equal to (cost of running one truck) / (number of parcels the truck carries).
Nagle's algorithm[0]. So long as you haven't recieved a "Where the hell is my mail" phone call, just keep adding stuff to the second truck until that second truck fills up, and send it later.