fedex_truckUnfortunately, there’s nothing we can do on the shipping cost. We don’t ship using USPS (the cheaper option) since we had too many orders go ‘missing’. So now we only use trackable courier shipping like FedEx and UPS. And believe it or not, on some orders we are actually losing a few dollars.

Some tips we can give you that may help: Order more at one time, rather than less, since there is a base shipping charge and adding extra products does not add that much extra to the shipping cost (unless you’re ordering heavy items like the 1 gallon George’s Aloe Vera and Absorb Plus).

Also, if you’re going to be purchasing every 2-3 months or so, then it will be cheaper to sign up for JPT Wellness Circle, since one of the benefits of membership is 10% – 15% off EVERY order – regardless of size. Of course, you can then combine this discount with free shipping (for orders over $350), if you wish. You can find out all the benefits of membership (much more than just the 15% discount) here: http://www.jptwellnesscircle.com/membershipinfo.php

Of course, the other alternative is to order over $350 worth – then you will get a 5% discount AND free shipping if you are in the continental USA (does not apply to Alaska and Hawaii). If you’re not in the continental U.S., I’m sorry but there’s no way we can give free shipping as we’d no longer be in business!

Perhaps the way other internet sites can offer cheaper shipping is that (1) They are shipping such a large number of orders per day, that the courier companies have given them steep discounts and/or (2) They are selling such a large volume of product that they can afford to subsidize shipping costs from their product profits.

The other strategy sites will use is to lose money on low-ticket items like vitamins and herbs, but then they have your email and address to market high-priced items where they make up for the lost revenue – we actually had a long conversation with an Internet supplement store that was doing this.

Unfortunately, since we are just a small shop, and we’re not a front to upsell you into some expensive products/systems, we can’t offer any of those cost-cutting measures. Believe me, nothing would make us happier than to be able to offer flat-rate or free shipping – that’s one of the reasons we love buying books from Amazon! But unless droves of people decide to abandon medical/drug treatment and seek natural healing protocols, that’s not going to happen anytime soon!

Anyway, as Jini often says, if you prefer to buy locally, then just use the Holistic Health Shoppe as a resource – find out which brands Jini recommends and what to look for to ensure potency in the various products. Just copy down the names of the products Jini recommends, then contact your local health store and get them to order everything in for you. Since the products will come along with their regular shipments, they won’t charge you any shipping costs.

Again, we really do empathize with you and wish there was more we could do on this – but it’s the classic corner store trying to compete with Wal-Mart scenario – there’s just no way we can get prices as low as the ‘big guys’