It seems like everytime I open up my inbox I’m sent another email from a supplier or service that says ‘prices have gone up’.
It’s my least exciting news to share as of lately but the truth is, as a small business we’re simply not able to continue to absorb the extra costs that are put on us. Prices of bottles have gone up, prices of ingredients have gone up, customs fees have gone up, and shipping costs have gone WAY up.
I like to stand out and run our business in a different way, ie. we’re always open, we try to go above and beyond when it comes to customer service, run contests, giveaways, etc. And up until now we haven’t increased our costs like everyone else.
However, to continue to run a profitable business, it simply isn’t sustainable to continue to cover every single extra cost we’re dealing with. At this point, the only cost we’ll need to increase is shipping. However it’s possible, like everyone else, other prices will need to go up.
You’ll notice on the order form shipping within Alberta has gone up from $13 to $17. This is the exact same price we are charged (some companies actually charge more than what they are charged to make a profit on the shipping end as well), and this is the increase that we’ve been covering for the last month.
You’ll also notice outside of Alberta’s shipping cost has gone up from $20 to $25. In this case, it always costs us more than $20 to ship outside of Alberta. We’ve been covering the extra costs. But when we’re shipping a product across the country for $45, that extra $25 is more than we’re able to cover as they continue to increase those prices for us.
The only other option I can think of to keep costs down is for more of our customers to consider the distributor route. If you have even a couple friends or family members in your area using our products. You can order in larger quantities, save on shipping costs and even get discounted products ordering at our wholesale price.
We’re doing the best we can as a small business to keep costs down and to continue to offer the best quality products possible. We understand some people may move on and choose to support their closest box store instead to save on any extra costs. That’s not something we can control.
We’ll focus on what we can control, and continue to push forward in a manner that’s gotten us through 12 years in business with those that not only stand by us, but carry us through challenging times.
