Shipping Delays by USPS

Happy October!  This is the spooky month of the year and my very favorite month by far.  I love the chilly fall weather, the beautiful reds & yellows of the turning leaves and, yes, Halloween!  I have loved Halloween since I was a child and look forward to it every year.  Comfort food & horror movies equal heaven for me.  So right now I am definitely in my happy place.

This month I want to share some news regarding USPS shipping changes.  Beginning in October, USPS has unfortunately decided to begin shipping USPS 1st class packages via a slower delivery method (as if it wasn't already slow enough).  In their infinite wisdom, prices have increased so that basically everyone is paying more for worse service.  I'm writing about this to let my customers know that you should expect (hopefully) minor delays in delivery of 1st class packages.  My understanding is that packages being delivered to states closer to the origin shipping location will be the least affected and packages that go across the country will be the most affected.  As a result, it is likely my California and other west coast customers will be affected the most.  I apologize in advance for the longer delivery times but, as I'm sure you all know, none of us have control over the postal service.  Please be assured I am monitoring how long it takes for packages to arrive and will respond accordingly as soon as I can figure out how to do so.

Please see below for the news directly from the USPS website:

On October 1, the Postal Service will implement new service standards for First-Class Mail and Periodicals. . . .The Postal Service will increase time in-transit standards by 1 or 2 days for certain mail that are traveling longer distances.  By doing so, the Postal Service can entrust its ground network to deliver more First-Class Mail, which will lead to greater consistency, reliability, and efficiency that benefits its customers.

Basically my understanding is that USPS will no longer use air transportation for first class packages and will now ship by ground.  So, as noted above, higher price & slower service.  Time will tell just how much longer this will actually take in the real world for packages to be delivered. 

I am currently considering adding Fed X shipping to my selection of shipping options. So far it looks like it might be a viable option. On a package I shipped yesterday, Fed X ground stated four days transit time from Georgia to California and, for this particular parcel, the price was actually cheaper than USPS.  The other option I have been considering is changing all package delivery to USPS Priority Mail.  Of course, this will cost more for my customers and, in addition, in my opinion this is exactly what USPS wants to happen.  I will continue to check into all options and report back once I have more time to investigate.  This whole situation makes me unhappy as I want my customers to have the most economical shipping method possible, but on the other hand, I don't want to end up with them waiting over a week to receive their purchases.  If you have an opinion about delivery time vs. pricing, drop me a line here and let me know.  I would love to know what is more important to you.  Do you mind waiting extra time if the shipping price is cheaper or would you rather have your package more quickly and pay more?

That's about it for my ramblings this month.  I hope you all enjoy the beautiful month of October as much as I do.  As far as I'm concerned October is "the most wonderful time of the year."  As always, thank you for shopping at Cherry Rose Cottage and spending time with me here.  Happy Shopping!