So to address the shipping issue...
First anyone that feels they have been overcharged for shipping, please just let me know. We try to correct our shipping calculator when it misfires, but of course we are going to miss one or two with large sales day like this, so if that happens to you, just let me know. Call me. Email me. PM me here on the forum. I'll take a look at the order and refund you the correct amount. Easy as that.
Secondly, I wanted to address the idea that 67King raised that the most important factor is "the market's dictation of price".
Let's start with where we agree. In certain industries, the competition of the market pushes people toward greater and greater innovation, which means better less expensive products. Computers are the best example of this kind of dynamic. Just look at what has happened to the price of a gigabyte over the last 30 years.
The question then is "Does the market universally operate like this?" I would say no. In some industries what you see, instead of increased competition leading to innovation, is a race to the bottom in terms of reducing all possible costs (one of the biggest costs being workers). While this factor is obviously part of the story of why computers are cheaper, it is not the whole story.
Before this gets too abstract, let's look at an example. Harry Epstein's can buy a hammer from a manufacturer at the lowest bottom dollar price, $10. We have to buy $1,000 worth of hammers to get it at this price, but for us, it is worth it. In order to pay all of our expenses, we need to make a 30% profit, so we retail the hammer for $13. We need to make that 30% because we only have full time employees, who have health benefits and company contributed retirement plans, among other expenses such as operating a brick and mortar store.
So let's say another company also buys this $10 hammer, but decides to hire part time people, give them no benefits, and strip away every possible expense in this relationship. They also operate out of a warehouse. They then can afford to make 10% or 15% off the same $10 hammer. So when you go online and look at this hammer, you will see the same hammer at various price points. The impulse is to say that the company that is selling it cheapest has somehow "innovated" and is making things better in the long run because the price is falling. But what have they innovated, and what effect is that having by selling it slightly less?
I would say that the most important factor in all of this is the implications of this last question. What effect does my business practice have on the world around me, and can I justify my actions in terms of competing in the market? In the spirit of Epstein's Day, as consumers and business people, I think these are questions we all struggle with and the answer is never easy or apparent to any of us.
You guys generated about 120 orders this year and we are incredibly grateful for your support. This goes a long way to show me that people are motivated by other factors than "cheapness" and that this, in my mind, is innovation, one that is hard to fit on a graph, but innovation none the less.
Jori
HJE
How about 136?
.
I used one of mine just this weekend.
