Military Friendly Shops ~ A web based network for help and discounts

Today I got notice that I was one of the "Shops of the Week" on a web site dedicated to help with shopping and shipping for military families, especially those overseas! COOL! Check it out!

http://www.militaryfriendlyshops.webs.com/

This is how they describe themselves and the web site....

Who We Are
We are two Army wives & mothers! Yep just like you! We love to shop and have our own business making hair items for lil ones. We come across many sales and specials and thought..why not share them!!
We are avid online shoppers, we can and will (try!!) find every discount for you!
Our personal shops can be found at:

Lizzies Little Liahs Baby Bows Site

A Soldiers Flowers Etsy Site

And we offer FREE shipping to all APO, & FPO address's!
Any questions for us or about us?? Just ask!
Angela & Elizabeth

Postal Rate Changes ! You will like this!

Postal rate changes May 12th 2008… Regular stamp is now 42 cents…

The basic beginning priority charge of $4.60 will become ----$4.80 For under 2 pounds or for the flat rate envelope…*** To overcome this rate increase I will be changing my postage habits… and go with first class or parcel post for all items under 13 ounces.

1 ~ the bad news….

a-The first size flat rate box, the shirt box size and the shoe box size, will increase from $8.95 --à to $9.80 wow a big change

b-The larger size flat rate box, is 50% larger than the original Flat Rate Boxes, currently $12.95 will not change..? This seems like a typo to me; However, I will wait and see… so far so good.

2 ~ the Good News….

So I will be bringing down some of my postal charges! …. Yes while everyone else is raising the rates I am going with the cheaper First class or parcel post postage for many of my items. This requires me to do some extra work, and purchase new shipping boxes. I will continue to attempt to find and recycle good clean shipping boxes, however, to be sure I can ship all of the products in my shop I have purchased some great boxes from Uline. I had preferred priority shipping for several reasons, it came with free boxes for me, it allowed for quick delivery for all my customers, and it also came with a cheap (18cents) delivery confirmation… even thought it was more expensive to start with It was convenient for me and the quickest-economical way for my customers. If you prefer priority shipping I will send you an updated invoice to reflect the charges for that service.

Here is the what and the how……

Was…… Now….
All the shipping charges that :

Were under $4 – remain the same -> no change

$4.60 Priority mail changes to --> $4.00 I will change to first class or parcel post

$9.00 Priority Mail --> no change, however I will consider how I ship perhaps, First Class or parcel post on a case by case basis

12.95 Priority Mail - ->no change, however I will consider how I ship perhaps, First

Class or parcel post on a case by case basis

The secondary charges will remain the same….. And I will purchase delivery confirmation for every shipped purchase that it is available for. As always, any time shipping/handling cost turns out to be considerably less than you paid (in excess of $3) I will refund those excess postal charges with a paypal refund right away.

I am certainly fed up with the increases every year, while the product delivered has not improved substantially. My understanding of increasing cost of doing business (labor and transportation) leads me to believe that they had no choice and they are allowed by law to revisit their pricing structure each year. So I began to think! think!... look search... and think some more.... soon I realized that my use of the priority shipping almost exclusively was hurting my choices and that of my customers. So here I go swimming against the tide!... and I hope this will help my customers decide to continue shopping and buying from me!Happy Etsy Shopping, Buying and Selling.