Does anyone else feel restricted because of shipping fees?
I know that many of us have ditched Amazon, but it’s hard to ignore their free shipping policy.
When you’re looking for Canadian products sold by Canadian companies, and have to pay $10-$20 extra for shipping because it’s not available locally, it’s like a premium on top of a premium.
And yes, some places offer free shipping past a certain amount (usually well over $100), which just incentivizes buying extra stuff you don’t need.
I mean, shit, you can get products shipped from China for free, so why can’t we offer free or very low cost shipping within Canada (via Government incentives)?
Does anyone have any tips to ease this pain point?
I’m training myself to accept shipping fees as something that was always there. Amazon free shipping is just a hidden fee - the deliveries are still costing money. Amazon just masks that cost.
I see it the same as food delivery services having „free delivery“ when in fact they’re fucking the restaurants and drivers to get the piece they want.
It still rankles when I’m ordering something from Ontario that’s 8 bucks and shipping is 12.
Amazon wasn’t masking the cost so much as intentionally running at a loss for a decade to wipe out all other vendors and consolidate the entire market.
Regardless of how Amazon is doing it, I’m sure many people simply buy from them because of the free shipping. When I was using them for grocery items, they’d list products for less than local + they’d deliver it free the same or next day. It’s very hard to beat that, but I’m trying.
I’m trying to take advantage of any “free shipping” being offered by Canadian businesses out of town or out of the province. But if I only need $20-30 worth of a food item, it kills me to have to pay almost as much to ship it.
I’m seeing this being even more of an issue when I’m looking at supporting farmers who don’t sell their products locally, but they also aren’t set up to be shipping cheaply, either.