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I guess it applies to Alaska, too. My wife's mother lives in Hawaii, and for her birthday, we got her an antique-looking radio/CD player from a company that specializes in such products. The company doesn't ship to Hawaii, so we had the product shipped to us here in Oregon, and then we mailed it to Hawaii. Why won't some companies ship to Hawaii? Yes, it would cost more than shipping it from one point on the mainland to another, but since the customer pays shipping costs, what's the problem?
Most companies will but you may have to call them and request it and they will charge you extra shipping. I guess companies figure that most Hawaiians will not be willing to pay the extra shipping. Either they won't want it after being told of extra shipping cost or the item maybe cheaper on the islands by the time extra costs are calculated. It's probably not worth the hassle for both the consumer or the company.
I could have to do with quality control too, since the shipper can't control the temperatures and rough handling that takes place in long-distance shipping. That's why a lot of chocolate companies won't ship ANYTHING out of their local area.
I've shipped hatching eggs to Alaska. I was told that nobody else will do it. But all I needed was my NPIP certification, which anybody who ships eggs is supposed to have. The postage was less than shipping to the East coast and the eggs arrived safely in Alaska in 24 hours.
It shouldn't take anything in the mail more than 24 hours (from the West coast) to get to Hawaii, either. All mail goes by plane. Those one price shipping boxes are good for anywhere in the USA, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Shipping by postal service to Alaska or Hawaii is no more complicated than shipping to Nebraska.
Shipping large items that have to go by a cargo carrier would be more complicated to ship, but it certainly isn't impossible. Any company selling items that large is already dealing with cargo companies.
So there is not much excuse for it. Probably just an unwillingness to spend an extra 1 1/2 minutes on the telephone to get a freight quote.
Many companies use modern logistic services. In basic terms, the days of UPS, FedEx and USPS dominating and being independendt is long gone. So a package shipped by Fedex across the country may be delivered locally by USPS. A shipper may use a particular trucking company to consolidate all orders to one part of the country for distribution by other carriers. A package goung from NY to CA may startout in Fedex hands, transfer over to another carrier for the cross country trip and end up in the us mail. This means greater and faster deliver as well as LOWER COST to the person payingt he shipping.
But that service is cut at the pacific ocean and is limited in availability to Hawaii. Because "free shipping" or "Flat rate $5.00 shipping" and all the other come on's used to get you to buy from a store depends on being able to honor that, they use the blanket statement that shipping is not available to hawaii. Usually, a call direct to the vendor will get it shipped to Hawaii at the regular rate.
There are quite a few places that will ship to Hawaii. Live and learn.
Amazon.com is one of the best as far as free shipping goes---ring up more than $25 worth of stuff and shipping is free, for many things. Over the years they've amassed a huge number of companies that also fulfill the orders placed on its website. Some of these charge exhorbitant shipping rates (I kid you not---I once checked out an item costing about $150 that qualified for free shipping to the 48 contiguous states but showed a shipping fee of about $130 to Hawaii!!!) but others charge the same or only slightly more than what you would pay if you lived on the mainland. Some even included Alaska and Hawaii in their free shipping promos.
The good thing about Amazon.com now is that the shipping charge shows up right on the page you're looking at. Years ago you had to go through the fun of putting in the order and having a horrendous shipping charge show up on the confirmation page or, even better, get a message, in red with exclamation points, telling you that the item could not be shipped to Hawaii.
LL Bean ships for free, as coes Sephora.com and Zappos.com (which even has free returns). Many of the online stores that scream "FREE SHIPPING" in e-mails have a little asterisk next to that statement....and you know the rest. JCP, Target, Macy's, Bed Bath and Beyond---all charge for shipping (but for some reason when Macy's has a "free shipping" promo it sometimes takes the code and gives you free shipping anyway, even though it says it's not valid for Hawaii). The shipping charges from these places isn't too bad, IME. A bit more than they would charge someone from the mainland but still acceptable, most times. The good thing about buying stuff online from companies that have stores in Hawaii is that you can return things to their brick-and-mortar places here.
Sometimes it takes a lot of searching to find a company that will ship a particular item here but, unless it is an item exclusive to a certain company, it can usually be done. If not, you just learn to settle for something else. ;-)
Last edited by PaliPatty; 08-07-2012 at 02:49 PM..
Thanks for all the responses, everyone – I never expected such a diverse variety of information! On the flip side, we often give Big Island Candies goodies as gifts (my wife went to school with the owner), and when we procrastinate till the last minute at Christmas time, shipping those gift baskets to the mainland can cost more than the gift baskets themselves.
Thanks for all the responses, everyone – I never expected such a diverse variety of information! On the flip side, we often give Big Island Candies goodies as gifts (my wife went to school with the owner), and when we procrastinate till the last minute at Christmas time, shipping those gift baskets to the mainland can cost more than the gift baskets themselves.
I regularly order Mochi ice cream from bubbles. They've got it down to science. Arrives perfect from Honolulu to chicago. I am also amazon prime member so it's good to know they ship there for free
Many companies use modern logistic services. In basic terms, the days of UPS, FedEx and USPS dominating and being independendt is long gone. So a package shipped by Fedex across the country may be delivered locally by USPS. A shipper may use a particular trucking company to consolidate all orders to one part of the country for distribution by other carriers. A package goung from NY to CA may startout in Fedex hands, transfer over to another carrier for the cross country trip and end up in the us mail. This means greater and faster deliver as well as LOWER COST to the person payingt he shipping.
But that service is cut at the pacific ocean and is limited in availability to Hawaii. Because "free shipping" or "Flat rate $5.00 shipping" and all the other come on's used to get you to buy from a store depends on being able to honor that, they use the blanket statement that shipping is not available to hawaii. Usually, a call direct to the vendor will get it shipped to Hawaii at the regular rate.
This, plus the fact that one of the main compontents of this system is that it relies primarily on TRUCKS. I was told by a company once that my particular item could not be shipped to me here because of the reasons of above, basically, the item was only to go out from that warehouse on a truck. Couldn't be put on a plane.
I mean, it physically COULD have been (it was a pair of golf shoes) but with their system/standards/pricepoints, they were not willing to deviate.
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