Ah mail. Something I used to dread is now one of the most exciting parts of my day.
Most of my food and household supplies were shipped from Anchorage by mail, and sometimes those packages can take a week or more to arrive. I was so worried that I was going to run out of food!
I mailed 7 totes out of Anchorage, and on Tuesday only 3 of them had arrived. That gave me some extra food, and a lot of clothes and toilet paper! I also got my big box that had my ferret cage, and a blanket. But none of my totes had arrived from PA yet :/
Thankfully a few days later, the last four of my Anchorage totes had arrived, leaving me with plenty of food, toilet paper, and paper towels (seriously why did I buy so many paper towels??)
Finally, this past Friday, the remainder of my PA totes arrived. Mail day is so exciting, it reminds me of Christmas every time a package arrives! I also forgot a lot of what I packed so it was kind of a surprise too. Now my ferrets have lots of extra food and treats, and I have insulated hiking boots and bed sheets.
There were a few items that I didn't pack/didn't think to buy, so I put in (2!) orders through Amazon Prime. I'd read a lot of good things, and many told me it was pretty much a must-have. Well, what they don't tell you (except in the fine print...) is that an item must be shipped by Amazon in order to qualify for free shipping. It sounds like a no-brainer on paper, but I didn't know and had a lot of items added to my cart that I ended up removing because the shipping costs were wacko! So, be sure to double check items. (that $3 headband had $12 shipping...)
Another peeve of mine was that a lot of the items I needed were "Prime Pantry" only. This is a really cool concept where you get a "box" and items that qualify fill a certain percentage of the "box". Once it's full, it ships to you, and most of the items are cheaper than what you'd pay at a store. Well, Prime Pantry doesn't ship to where I am in Alaska.....and a lot of household type items are Prime Pantry only, which was frustrating. I needed antibacterial wipes, but the large packs of Lysol wipes were all Prime Pantry only, so I had to go with a single pack of a different brand. It sounds petty, but it's a pain when I can't just run to the store to grab what I need.
I was pretty impressed with the shipping times. Most of what I ordered directly from Amazon shipped the next day and arrived on time this afternoon (Monday). However, I was NOT impressed with their packaging, or lack thereof. My items were just laid in the box. There was no padding or cushioning material whatsoever, which could have been bad since I bought a candle in a glass jar! Thankfully nothing was broken, but I'll definitely take it into consideration when buying fragile items again!
Most of my food and household supplies were shipped from Anchorage by mail, and sometimes those packages can take a week or more to arrive. I was so worried that I was going to run out of food!
I mailed 7 totes out of Anchorage, and on Tuesday only 3 of them had arrived. That gave me some extra food, and a lot of clothes and toilet paper! I also got my big box that had my ferret cage, and a blanket. But none of my totes had arrived from PA yet :/
Thankfully a few days later, the last four of my Anchorage totes had arrived, leaving me with plenty of food, toilet paper, and paper towels (seriously why did I buy so many paper towels??)
Finally, this past Friday, the remainder of my PA totes arrived. Mail day is so exciting, it reminds me of Christmas every time a package arrives! I also forgot a lot of what I packed so it was kind of a surprise too. Now my ferrets have lots of extra food and treats, and I have insulated hiking boots and bed sheets.
There were a few items that I didn't pack/didn't think to buy, so I put in (2!) orders through Amazon Prime. I'd read a lot of good things, and many told me it was pretty much a must-have. Well, what they don't tell you (except in the fine print...) is that an item must be shipped by Amazon in order to qualify for free shipping. It sounds like a no-brainer on paper, but I didn't know and had a lot of items added to my cart that I ended up removing because the shipping costs were wacko! So, be sure to double check items. (that $3 headband had $12 shipping...)
Another peeve of mine was that a lot of the items I needed were "Prime Pantry" only. This is a really cool concept where you get a "box" and items that qualify fill a certain percentage of the "box". Once it's full, it ships to you, and most of the items are cheaper than what you'd pay at a store. Well, Prime Pantry doesn't ship to where I am in Alaska.....and a lot of household type items are Prime Pantry only, which was frustrating. I needed antibacterial wipes, but the large packs of Lysol wipes were all Prime Pantry only, so I had to go with a single pack of a different brand. It sounds petty, but it's a pain when I can't just run to the store to grab what I need.
I was pretty impressed with the shipping times. Most of what I ordered directly from Amazon shipped the next day and arrived on time this afternoon (Monday). However, I was NOT impressed with their packaging, or lack thereof. My items were just laid in the box. There was no padding or cushioning material whatsoever, which could have been bad since I bought a candle in a glass jar! Thankfully nothing was broken, but I'll definitely take it into consideration when buying fragile items again!