Price Check: 6-Pack Styro Wine Shipper

Price Check

I’ve had a lousy day. Between my car being towed from the Jack In the Box lot next to my office building (I know, I shouldn’t have parked there!) and site traffic dropping back to normal pre-InStyle-blurb levels, it’s been reality-check-filled.

So I can tell you I wasn’t in the mood to find that I’d run out of 6-bottle shippers (props go to InStyle for the very welcome and unanticipated boost in business!). On top of this, my supplier is on a mini-vacation until sometime next week. Oops.

Not wanting to drive all the way to my usual back-up source for shippers, I decided to stop by a wine shop to pick up some shippers to tide me over, on my way back to the office from the impound lot. But I was dismayed at the price I found: $9 for a six-pack. I left, empty-handed, and figured I’d get them cheaper elsewhere.

Next stop: a Mail Boxes, Etc.-style shop next to the taco stand where I picked up some much needed sustenance. The store carried some U-Line wine shipping materials, but their prices were even worse than the wine shop I first ventured to. Ugh. $25 for a six pack (no wine included)? I know what these things cost wholesale from U-Line and $25 is pure greed. Exxon-Mobil level greed.

Alas, turns out that I’ll need to make a special trip to my back-up source after all. K&L…they probably know I buy shippers from them occasionally, so I guess I’ll out myself here. There, I can get a six-pack for $4.50 (or is it $5?), which I have to say is even less than my trusty wholesaler. I would buy all my shippers from them if I could, but I’m already pushing it with my twice monthly emergency refills.

After all my grumbling, I realize that wine shipping materials might make a decent little “Price Check” column. So here’s what I found today in my goose-chase quest for a six-bottle shipper:

K&L: $4.50
BoxVendor.com: $6.00
U-Line: $8.45
John & Pete’s: $9.00
Mail Box Shop at Cahuenga/Melrose: $25

Have you found better — or more egregious — prices than these? Please tell!

Finally, I’ll end with a little rant…

I realize that nobody likes paying for wine shippers, whether you’re a consumer or retailer. But there are costs associated with these materials, like it or not. It’s usually a cost I eat, or at the very least subsidize, when shipping to customers. People already complain about high shipping costs, and what you’re paying is really just what FedEx charges us; if we were to add a handling fee to cover the styro-shippers on top of freight, you’d probably just take your business elsewhere. I don’t blame you, I would too.

I say this not to antagonize you, but just to make you aware that in most cases, when you’re buying wine via mail, unless a retailer is extremely high volume, shipping is not a profit center for them. It’s the opposite…

what's all this, then?

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