danase.com going out of business

Re: Shopping

black bart said:
I tried to buy a camera battery at my local wal mart I gave her the number and she said do you have the battery with you, I said no and repeated the number.

She said if you bring in the battery we can try to match it :confused:

On the way home I stopped at a Radio Shack gave him the number and he gave me a battery.
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Mine is a long story.
Check your PMs in a few minutes.
 
Re: Shopping

CharlesW said:
Mine is a long story.
Check your PMs in a few minutes.
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Come on Charles.... We are all wanting to read/hear about the story since we are already way off topic.!! I personally love stories about Walmart. My least favorite retailer.
 
I'm sorry to see any small business go under. It's kind of like watching the American dream going down the gutter. I know the owner hasn't been on DC in a long time but I hope Bob lands someplace he desires to be and his future turns out bright.

All this said and since the thread has side stepped the issue a bit anyway, I'll make this comment. When buying detailing supplies I usually order enough products that the shipping isn't a deal breaker for me.

Shifting over to the gun industry many of you know that I build a few custom firearms. I have one company whose products I very much like. Sometimes I buy the parts for an entire rifle but often times it's just a small part for an upgrade. The place that manufacturers the parts frequently stops me in my tracks due to the freight charges. An example would be a $10 part with a shipping price of $13.95. The interesting part is that if I phone an order in as opposed to online and mention this they find a less expensive way to ship to me. I can order the same part from one of their distributors that uses a variety of shippers and the freight will be $4.95 instead of $13.95. As an example, sometimes I'm talking a small set of springs that can be shipped in a regular envelope, literally a couple of stamps.

This manufacturer's default shipper is UPS but if I ask they will ship USPS and it often comes out significantly cheaper. I absolutely don't want the company to lose money shipping to me. I want to see them here in the future. The issue here is that I know I will get the freight cheaper going to one of his distributors when shopping online, unfortunately that distributor doesn't carry the manufacturer's entire line. Once you get on to a competitors site you may not go back to the manufacturer's site. After all his distributor sells another quality product that will do the job so while I'm there I just place the entire order. The owner knows this as I've seen many who have made the same comment on line. I really think he loses a lot more business using this particular practice than he realizes.
 
As far as Danase and his shipping calculator go I think he's changed it to a simple $10 shipping per order for these final days.
 
Don't get me started about shipping cost complaints. I never made a dime on my shipping. In some cases you might make a dollar or two but then other cases would cost more for shipping than what the customer paid. It basically evened out.

Then throwing in free shipping at various times during the year was a bit tough on the old profit margin. If shipping is so lucrative then there wouldn't be online stores going out of business.
 
I recently bought a lens for my camera and they shipped it flat rate USPS in a very small box, I don't know what they are but no more than $4.95 but they charged me $24.95 shipping.

I ordered a 1/8" nitrous fitting from Summit Racing it was about 1 inch long would have been just a few ounces it cost $4.25 for the fitting and $8.95 shipping.

When you refill a nitrous bottle you need to change the nylon washer that seals at the valve. Summit sells them package of 2 for 5 bucks and $8.95 shipping.


I went to my local hardware and bought a dozen at 12 cents a piece that would have covered their profit plus freight to get it to the store.

I worry about places like Summit not making a profit.:yikes: :passout:
 
1st topic: Very sorry to see Danase close. Bob is a good guy and I know he'll land on his feet. We all wish him the very best.

2nd topic: My employer ships ~2000 USPS parcels per day. This is very cost effective and as long as our customers are well informed, they don't seem to mind. We quote "a week to ten days" delivery time.

The ~200 daily packages that need to go more urgently are sent via UPS. This is either by customer request, or because of the products involved, we want to overnight it or obtain a signature upon receipt.

I'd be interested to hear PB's and AG's experience with or thoughts on using the mail system.

hey, i love the o-nite packages too, but maybe it's time to think outside the box. lol! get it?
 
JohnHenry said:

I'd be interested to hear PB's and AG's experience with or thoughts on using the mail system.
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pretty simple ... USPS does not like to ship liquids ... they ask you every time
you hand them a package ..."any liquids, fragile or glass" ... not really an option and it's not really cheaper for heavy items as they are not used to handling the heavy stuff...few times we have tried there was damage and they are also were not easy to make a claim with...
we use it for international orders when we can as it does save on taxes, duty, and brokerage fees on the receiving end ...
 
I ordered a brass adapter just a couple inches in size and the manufacturer packaged it in a 1 ft square box filled with bubble wrap-lol. Shipping was free since it was attached to a much larger item which wasn't shipped free of charge.
 
I think it ultimately comes down to making sure you hold off on buying stuff until you have a large enough order to make it worth it. I don't think I have ever made an order for less than $50 (before shipping) and rarely do I over order less than $100. I have noticed that the shipping on numerous items which come to over $100 is not that much more than the shipping on one item. There is obviously a recessive relationship between the cost of the items and the cost to ship them meaning, as the cost of what I am buying goes up, the cost to ship it is increasing at a much slower rate.

I keep an Excel spreadsheet of things I am running low on or just want to give a try some time so when there is a single item I want, I just resort to that list to see what I should add to it to get the best rate for shipping. These are things I know I will use eventually (APC, car wash, ONR, etc.) so it is not like I am wasting money. And how often do we see vendors have specials saying: "Free shipping for orders over $XX.00"

Personally I don't blame Bob or Steve or Max (at AG) for having such a Shipping and Handling cost structure. If you are only going to buy one thing from me that costs less than $15, it costs me about the same in labor to pick the item, pack it with styrofoam, tape up the package, and take it to the shipping area as it does to go pick 6-8 items that I am making $100 for but, since I am making $100 off this customer, I don't mind eating a few dollars in the shipping cost versus they guy who only gave me $15 in sales.

All businesses will give discounts to those who buy higher volume, that is how Home Depot, Dick's Sporting Goods and other retail giants were able to beat out the locals, they bought items by the millions from their vendors rather than buy the hundreds so they were able to get those items much cheaper and sell them cheaper.
 
JaredPointer said:
I know I ship some stuff, and it never costs in the $8.00+ range. It's sort of ridiculous to me that shipping an item, say a bottle of polish, a place will charge you $8+. Generally half the cost of the bottle of polish. Really?

It's just aggravating to want to get a bottle of something, you see it's already $15+, then by the time you're checking out it's past $20. For a single bottle of something. At those kind of prices in today's world, I'll just have to pick up a bottle of 3M or Meg's at Wally World for $6-8 and call it a day. It's hard for me to justify laying out more than double for something I can get on a grocery trip that will pretty much perform the same. Maybe I should use more product so that when I buy stuff it's a bigger order....
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I had a rude awakening today, I paid $ 16.95 for ups ground for a couple things to check out....guess I didnt pay enough attention when I made the order...I called them to see if there was a mistake...or if I made one ,
The answer was No....no mistake.....I guess one really needs to shop around. :wow:
 
JaredPointer said:
I know I ship some stuff, and it never costs in the $8.00+ range.
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I ship some stuff too and $8 to $10 to ship a 32 oz. bottle is not at all uncommon. That's just the actual shipping charges from UPS or USPS. I usually use USPS since there is a post office drop off 2 blocks away and I go past it daily. The UPS Store is about 3 miles out of the way which would mean 6 miles round trip through city traffic. Probably 20 minutes of driving time. I don't intend to spend a lot of time shipping stuff. Never used Fed-Ex.
I don't recall sending as little as 16 oz. so I don't know what the shipping would be on that small of an amount.
 
Also note, companies that ship using contracts get reduced rates from Fed Ex, UPS, etc.

I think the most honest way to ship is to have a fixed handling fee to cover labor and materials and then actual ship costs.

At one place I use, it would cost $15 to ship 3 1 gallon bottles from NJ to NC using Fed Exp or $20 using UPS. That is equivalent to a 5% difference in the order total for those that rely on sales discounts and/or shipping promotions.
 
CharlesW said:
I ship some stuff too and $8 to $10 to ship a 32 oz. bottle is not at all uncommon. That's just the actual shipping charges from UPS or USPS. I usually use USPS since there is a post office drop off 2 blocks away and I go past it daily. The UPS Store is about 3 miles out of the way which would mean 6 miles round trip through city traffic. Probably 20 minutes of driving time. I don't intend to spend a lot of time shipping stuff. Never used Fed-Ex.
I don't recall sending as little as 16 oz. so I don't know what the shipping would be on that small of an amount.
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Really? I can't remember a time when I shipped out a package of samples to folks across the country and it cost me more than $5-6. I've even sent a few full size bottles in boxes to folks and I can't remember it costing $8. Granted, I wasn't sending it overnight or anything, usually the cheapest shipping option that USPS offered. Priority mail perhaps? And I'm just "the little guy" - I have to assume that a place that sells hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and ships hundreds of packages daily must get some sort of shipping cost break.

As I stated earlier, I'll still buy the staple stuff I need online or mail order, but I'll probably wait until I need 3-4 different products. It's also enough of a rub to me to keep me from trying a bottle of this here and a bottle of that there (i.e. buying one thing at a time). I know shipping may not be a money maker for everyone, but I think it's enough of a filler / padder for it to have filtered down to places like Ebay where people charge double what it costs to package and ship something.
 
JaredPointer said:
Really? I can't remember a time when I shipped out a package of samples to folks across the country and it cost me more than $5-6. I've even sent a few full size bottles in boxes to folks and I can't remember it costing $8. Granted, I wasn't sending it overnight or anything, usually the cheapest shipping option that USPS offered. Priority mail perhaps? And I'm just "the little guy" - I have to assume that a place that sells hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and ships hundreds of packages daily must get some sort of shipping cost break.
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you know what happens when you assume :notme: not a chance other than those "as seen on tv items" .... when you ship you usually ship parcel post or first class ... you do not get tracking or insurance :rolleyes: business's or at least smart ones, have to be able to know where your stuff is and if it is damaged or lost, which happens all too much, they need to be able to cover themselves. ;)

next time you order something, just tell them to send it the cheapest way and you don't care if it's damaged, lost or how long it takes and if it never arrives, you are ready to just say oh well who cares, and just give up your money for the product and shipping :crazy: do you really think $2-3 is not worth knowing where your package is and that it is covered :idea
 
Poorboy said:
you know what happens when you assume :notme: not a chance other than those "as seen on tv items" .... when you ship you usually ship parcel post or first class ... you do not get tracking or insurance :rolleyes: business's or at least smart ones, have to be able to know where your stuff is and if it is damaged or lost, which happens all too much, they need to be able to cover themselves. ;)

next time you order something, just tell them to send it the cheapest way and you don't care if it's damaged, lost or how long it takes and if it never arrives, you are ready to just say oh well who cares, and just give up your money for the product and shipping :crazy: do you really think $2-3 is not worth knowing where your package is and that it is covered :idea
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All good points, and again, I am looking at it from the perspective of buying one or two items at a time or shipping things a few times a year. Both models I follow would probably be inefficient to a business. It would be nice to have the option of selecting a lower cost shipping option when making small orders, as I probably don't care too much about insurance and tracking on a one or two item order in the $20-25 range.
 
Again, ordering and item here and there is just not the way to order online. Stuff has to be bundled together to spread the shipping over it. I purposely try to increase the amount of items I order each time by decreasing the frequency of placing orders. If I only need one item, I look through my detailing supplies and see what is running low and add those items to my order. I am going to order them anyways, might as well get them together with the one item I need.
 
Bert said:
Again, ordering and item here and there is just not the way to order online. Stuff has to be bundled together to spread the shipping over it. I purposely try to increase the amount of items I order each time by decreasing the frequency of placing orders. If I only need one item, I look through my detailing supplies and see what is running low and add those items to my order. I am going to order them anyways, might as well get them together with the one item I need.
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The situation I refer to is this, I order things from California all the time,sum times around 25 lbs shipped by ups, I am in the midwest ,five shipping days its here...ups ground...usualy about $9.00.....now I get a light package that is coming one third of the distance and its $16.95....thats what iam talking about.....ridiculous , but its my fault I didnt pay enough attention , now I will . :)
 
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