Originally Posted by
onaemtnest
First and foremost I realize it is my option to order or not to order from an online store.
Okay I was in search of the 'perfect' fabric and I finally found it. BUT, when I went to check out the price for shipping one yard of cotton fabric was $8.99! Making the fabric in essence nearly $20 a yard!!!!
I called the store and asked if they would consider mailing 1st class and they said flatly "No". The reason? They factored in insurance with their fee to cover loss should the Flat Rate Priority envelope not make it to its destination. Plus the cost of the envelope and cutting of the fabric??? i.e. handling fee, tracking service (BTW Flat Rate Priority envelopes rates are like $4.75 and tracking free, if they purchase online).
Could it be that they just prefer not to take little orders? A large order is not much more work than a small one. A lot of the time spent processing an order is time spent on administrative tasks; typing in an order, creating a label, and processing payments take the same amount of time regardless of the value of the order.
My guess - and it's just a guess - is that the $8.99 shipping would have covered an order up to a certain dollar-amount in value, so for larger orders it would be so painful, or have seemed as inappropriate.