anyone that uses austin homebrew see this?

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scottvin

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I just went to place an order with austin home brew and noticed this:

No more free shipping!

ahs.jpg
 
I had just noticed that and sent them an email.

I understand that business is business, but to me, that FREE was a little incentive to build an order up over $100. I hate to see it go.
 
Wow...that had to have JUST happened. I placed a large order with them on Monday (Sunday night) and it was still there. Major bummer! :(
 
Wow, I just got a brew kettle, pump, and other accessories from them yesterday, all shipped free. Glad I did it then instead of now. The free shipping was what made me choose them for my goods.
 
I just placed an order on Wednesday that was $112 and I got free shipping. Must have just happened. I was thinking of waiting until this weekend to order, but glad I did it on Wednesday now.
 
I was just looking at getting an order together and noticed that same thing, they didn't mention it in their weekly flyer. I feel like they don't love me anymore :(
 
I would have thought they would have at least emailed their previous customers explaining the reasoning for the change. I used them due to the free shipping and mostly lower priced goods. Until I get a mill, I will probably use brewerswarehouse for my beer recipe orders now.
 
I'm certainly no ahs fanboy, but we are talking about $5 here, right?
 
I was just looking at getting an order together and noticed that same thing, they didn't mention it in their weekly flyer. I feel like they don't love me anymore :(

Yeah, I feel the same way.


I would have thought they would have at least emailed their previous customers explaining the reasoning for the change. I used them due to the free shipping and mostly lower priced goods. Until I get a mill, I will probably use brewerswarehouse for my beer recipe orders now.

Again, you might want to tell them that.
 
yes, we are talking about $5 but they were the only major company that offers free shipping at any breakpoint.

Yep, and now they have nothing over BMW's Brew Builder. Which is awesome. ( The Brew Builder, not that they don't have any incentive to order from them)
 
Personally, I'm thrilled. This free shipping stuff has just pushed prices around in weird ways. You are paying for shipping, it's just couched in the cost of the items you're buying.

By turing shipping into an opaque cost, AHS was in this complicated position of having to inflate the cost of heavy things while keeping the cost of other items artificially low to give the impression of good prices. I'd much rather just pay for what I'm getting than try to sift through psychologized price structures.
 
You really think they'll lower prices now since they're don't have to pad to cover free shipping? Sure.

Prices essentially never fall, so it probably means they don't have to raise them as quickly to stay in the black.

I don't understand all the hoopla about "free shipping" to begin with. Yes, it's convenient, but every time I've compared between the free shipping / non-free shipping sites for an order, the final costs have been tiny---a couple bucks tops.
 
The discount being $2 between a $99 order and a $100 order isn't really much incentive. I'll bet they see fewer larger orders simply because people won't feel as much incentive to throw a bunch of extra stuff in to get over $100 to get free shipping. I've never bought that much at once from them so I'm not really impacted at all by this, but I do wonder how this will look in the long term for their sales.

EDIT: I didn't even realize it, but they dropped the flat rate under $100 to $6.99. It used to be $7.99. In fact I paid $7.99 on the order I placed on Wednesday.
 
You really think they'll lower prices now since they're don't have to pad to cover free shipping? Sure.

Actually, with fuel surcharges going up, we had to do it to avoid raising prices. I think people would prefer that we do not raise prices.

Forrest
 
Actually, with fuel surcharges going up, we had to do it to avoid raising prices. I think people would prefer that we do not raise prices.

Forrest

I certainly don't want higher prices, and if paying $5 for shipping will keep them acceptable I have no problem paying it.

Looks like I missed the dollar drop in <$100 orders, though! Eh, just a buck. Kyle
 
With shipping charges going through the roof, not only shipping to you but shipping charges on the items delivered to the store, we are doing everything we can to not raise prices. Each box we ship out (not each order) costs us an average of $15 a box. So a significant discount is applied for your shipping. Some orders we lose money, but we never charge more shipping than it costs us.

Over 80% of the orders we receive were still under $100 even with the free shipping over $100. I felt the best thing to do is give the majority of our customers an extra dollar off and still give a break to the people that over over $100.

We started the flat rate shipping in this industry and after awhile a lot of stores did the same. While no store can have the best price on everything, we should still have the best overall delivered price.

Once in awile we will have someone want us to match a price for thier order. Most of the time if you add in the shipping, in order to match the price we would have to charge extra. We had one person want to order 6 wine kits and he wanted us to match the price of another shop. They charged full shipping and in order to match the price we would have to have charged him an extra $90.

The $6.99 flat rate is less than what it costs us to ship one pound across the street so it is really a good deal. And $4.99 is a better deal. For a majority of our customers, the shipping price has been lowered.

Thanks for all of your support and understanding. Happy Brewing.

Forrest
 
Yep, and now they have nothing over BMW's Brew Builder. Which is awesome. ( The Brew Builder, not that they don't have any incentive to order from them)

BMW's brewbuilder is great! I don't brew enough to buy in bulk so if you only need 4oz for a recipe, that's what you buy and you don't have all these partial bags sitting around. Also , if you use the code BBBYO you get 10% off your recipe and I thought the 6.99 flat rate shipping was pretty decent. They have always treated me well.
 
With shipping charges going through the roof, not only shipping to you but shipping charges on the items delivered to the store, we are doing everything we can to not raise prices. Each box we ship out (not each order) costs us an average of $15 a box.

Hang on. I love you guys, and I have sung your praises to anyone that would listen, but this statement does not hold water.

$15 per box? So a starter kit costs you guys $30 to ship (two boxes), even though you only charge $7 on it?

My last order was for a recipe plus some bottles. It also came in two boxes. I don't think that UPS would have charged me $30 to ship it, and I don't get the discount that a volume business does.
 
You really think they'll lower prices now since they're don't have to pad to cover free shipping? Sure.

Certainly, or (more likely) it will prevent price rises in the near future. Homebrew supplies is a robust market. Margins are at or below general retail. If AHS doesn't have competitive pricing, it won't stay in business. Business charge whatever they can get away with. In an industry like this one, with dozens of competitors selling mostly equivalent products, those margins aren't particularly thick.
 
Even though there are lower cost options, I have been planning a bulk DME order from AHS specifically due to the free shipping.

$5 is still not much for something so heavy, but now I'll make an effort to actually compare a few prices.
 
Have you ever tried to ship something UPS or Fedex? Once your package hits about 4 lbs your at $15. AHS probably gets a volume discount but it's probably one 10% what you can get online or in a UPS or Fedex store.

Hang on. I love you guys, and I have sung your praises to anyone that would listen, but this statement does not hold water.

$15 per box? So a starter kit costs you guys $30 to ship (two boxes), even though you only charge $7 on it?

My last order was for a recipe plus some bottles. It also came in two boxes. I don't think that UPS would have charged me $30 to ship it, and I don't get the discount that a volume business does.
 
Have you ever tried to ship something UPS or Fedex? Once your package hits about 4 lbs your at $15. AHS probably gets a volume discount but it's probably one 10% what you can get online or in a UPS or Fedex store.

So, with the margins what they are in homebrew supplies, they've been absorbing $15-$30 on a typical order?

They have magic in that grain.
 
homebrewdad said:
Hang on. I love you guys, and I have sung your praises to anyone that would listen, but this statement does not hold water.

$15 per box? So a starter kit costs you guys $30 to ship (two boxes), even though you only charge $7 on it?

My last order was for a recipe plus some bottles. It also came in two boxes. I don't think that UPS would have charged me $30 to ship it, and I don't get the discount that a volume business does.

My SWMBO has been ordering some clothes for upcoming vacation and had to send some back. The cheapest was a t-shirt that was in a shipping envelope. It was 7 bucks at UPS. A box of several things that weighed less than 5 lbs was 15
 
i stopped using them a while ago - even with the free shipping, i can get most everything else cheaper (elsewhere) and pay for shipping...
 
i stopped using them a while ago - even with the free shipping, i can get most everything else cheaper (elsewhere) and pay for shipping...

You probably already know MoreBeer is just down from you in Concord, right?
I've used them, their cool, and competitive.

I've bought from : Homebrew Heaven, Northern Brewer, MoreBeer, and Austin Home Brew. They are all good in my opinion, I've spent over $100 with each of them (and more). The only tiny problem I've had was the liquid malt extract containers from AHS all leaked, not enough to even bother calling about, but enough for me to spend 20 minutes cleaning sticky liquid off everything. Of all the company's, I like the heavy foil like packages that MoreBeer ships their Liquid extract in. Other than that, I'll continue to buy from them all :D
 
You probably already know MoreBeer is just down from you in Concord, right?
I've used them, their cool, and competitive.

I've bought from : Homebrew Heaven, Northern Brewer, MoreBeer, and Austin Home Brew. They are all good in my opinion, I've spent over $100 with each of them (and more). The only tiny problem I've had was the liquid malt extract containers from AHS all leaked, not enough to even bother calling about, but enough for me to spend 20 minutes cleaning sticky liquid off everything. Of all the company's, I like the heavy foil like packages that MoreBeer ships their Liquid extract in. Other than that, I'll continue to buy from them all :D

i know, but sadly i haven't been yet... i use my LHBS and online. i've been lucky - great service all around. we need them all... think i'll go brew now.
 
yes, we are talking about $5 but they were the only major company that offers free shipping at any breakpoint.

Morebeer has free shipping, on MOST orders as they say, for orders over $59. I think bulk/bulky items are excluded.
 
$5 for over $100 worth of stuff seems pretty reasonable to me...shipping is not cheap.


Exactly.....I've been a customer of Austin Homebrew for years and have always been happy ordering from them.
 
I just made my first order from Austin, and I have to say I am quite impressed. There was an issue with my transaction and they contacted me right away so we could fix it and get it shipped to me. The shipping was by far the fastest from any of the online hbs I have ordered from. In addition the kits were of high quality and a really nice grind on the grains for the mini mash I chose.

Great company I will be ordering from them again. Remember guys its not just price but service and quality and AHB has all of it.

Chris
 
But now I have lost my excuse to tell the wife that I had to spend over a hundred for the free shipping. Anyway awesome company
and I will continue to do business with them.
 
Hang on. I love you guys, and I have sung your praises to anyone that would listen, but this statement does not hold water.

$15 per box? So a starter kit costs you guys $30 to ship (two boxes), even though you only charge $7 on it?

My last order was for a recipe plus some bottles. It also came in two boxes. I don't think that UPS would have charged me $30 to ship it, and I don't get the discount that a volume business does.

Retail Rates By Service Modify Shipment Information Service Latest Pickup

Result estimates calculated by UPS: Saturday, May 5, 2012 2:50 P.M. Eastern Time (USA)

* Rate includes a fuel surcharge .
* Based on Flight Availability. Not available at UPS Retail Locations. Please visit UPS Express Critical for rates and additional details.

Shipment Information Shipment Details
Ship To: BIRMINGHAM, 35201, UNITED STATES Ship From: AUSTIN, 78758, UNITED STATES Shipment Date: Monday, May 7, 2012 Total Shipment Weight: 16 lbs. Residential Number of Packages: 1
UPS Ground 8:15 P.M.
Monday
May 7, 2012
By End of Day,
Wednesday
May 9, 2012 18.87 USD *

This is for one box with a case of 12 oz bottles in it. We get a 25% discount so our cost for the shipping $14.16 plus the cost of the box, and shipping peanuts. It costs us closer to $30 if someone orders 3 all grain kits that fit in one box. Yet we still only charge $6.99.

Forrest
 
So, with the margins what they are in homebrew supplies, they've been absorbing $15-$30 on a typical order?

They have magic in that grain.

Yes we are absorbing the extra cost. We make less margin then a store that charges for full shipping. Actually on glass bottles, If you order 1 case we lose money, if you order 2 cases we break even, if you order 3 cases, we lose money, if you order 4 cases we break even, etc.

Forrest
 
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