Anyone notice that since Northern Brewer reinstated their free shipping on orders over $59 that most of the prices have increased dramatically, some as much as 30%, many grains increased by 50 cents a pound. Outrageous.
As of January, virtually all shippers increased their prices. The cost for heavier loads increased even more. I order wine kits online, often in excess of 40# each, and the price jump from "up to 49#" to "over 50#" is significant. On the bright side, Jeff Bezos is projected to become the world's first TRILLIONAIRE (no B.S.) by 2024. And then the current political class in D.C appears once again trying to bankrupt the U.S. Postal Service, causing shipping costs to increase even more. So there's that.Right before I placed the order I just did, I was looking at 36 lb or LME for $79.99. Now that free shipping is available again, it's $99.99.
It's still cheaper to buy bulk, get free shipping and make sure I get things I need all in one big order. I have read that most online brew shops are doing this. Something to do with shipping companies changing. I get it. The extra cost falls on the consumer.
I just make sure I get everything I need in a big bundle so I know I don't spend $20 on shipping for no reason.
To be fair, when they took away the free shipping option however many weeks ago, they lowered their prices to reflect that. Looking back at an order that I placed in early March, all of the prices are the same then as they are now except the 55lb sack of 2row. Their regularly priced items always seemed to be slightly higher than most online stores, but the free shipping generally evened it out. It sucks that they raised it up to 59$, though.Anyone notice that since Northern Brewer reinstated their free shipping on orders over $59 that most of the prices have increased dramatically, some as much as 30%, many grains increased by 50 cents a pound. Outrageous.
Don’t forget that AIH has a rewards program, as well.One site I keep forgetting about until just after I submit an order is AIH. They're *relatively* close to my location and have pretty competitive prices
Don’t forget that AIH has a rewards program, as well.
Oh? Interesting...
I find the proximity of these posts fascinating. We can file them all under..."There is no such thing as a free lunch."They are just letting you know there is never “free shipping”. It’s just a marketing tool.
Same. More often than not, northern brewer was the lowest. Or it was close enough that I still chose them since I would often receive my order the next day. But things are different these days.What I tend to do, is go to several sites and load up the cart with identical items. The one who ends up with the best overall price (shipped), gets my business. If it’s AIH, it’s an “added bonus” that I get reward points.
That's an interesting theory, but with the number of packages Amazon ships, there is no way they could loose money on Amazon packages and offset them with profits from other customers. They may run thinner margins on Amazon, but I doubt that Northern Brewer is being penalized for Amazon's business.Shipping has went up a LOT in the past 6 months, before the virus.
The heavier it is, the more it has gone up. I believe it has to do with super shippers like Amazon etc. They have contracts with shippers down to extremely thin margins. So UPS and FedEx raises the cost for everyone else to subsidize their losses to them.
I like AiH but the last kit I bought from them, I looked for the instruction sheet and could not find it. I found Austin Homebrew instructions, but nothing from AiH. Went online to download the AiH instructions - they were from AHS. Then I read the note about "In partnership with our friends at Austin Homebrew Supply". Kit was a 5-gal all-grain Lagunitas IPA clone. Same price on both sites. O...k.In my experience, I find that NB is seldom the lowest all-in cost supplier. AIH is often good, although this is of course dependent on what you're buying.
Funny you should bring up LME... I placed an order with Northern brewer in February for some of their golden LME 36 lbs to be exact for $79.99.Right before I placed the order I just did, I was looking at 36 lb or LME for $79.99. Now that free shipping is available again, it's $99.99.
It's still cheaper to buy bulk, get free shipping and make sure I get things I need all in one big order. I have read that most online brew shops are doing this. Something to do with shipping companies changing. I get it. The extra cost falls on the consumer.
I just make sure I get everything I need in a big bundle so I know I don't spend $20 on shipping for no reason.
I noticed they discontinued those kits as well. That really bummed me out too. The selection of 3G kits was extremely limited, but I did like that the major sellers seemed to be available at that volume. I'm loyal to my wallet, mostly. So if I'm doing an online order and their price is the lowest, I'll still order from them. Sometimes their sales/promos (if they ever bring them back...) are too good to pass up.I'm done with NB for the forseeable future. Their inverse relationship between customer service and business volume has annoyed me long enough. Plus, they stopped selling 3 gal kits - which I liked because it was a way to test a style with my smaller batch equipment before going a full 5 gals. Their solution was "split a 5-gal batch into two batches". That misses the point. Whatever...