USPS rate increase to be effective May 14, 2007

Stamps will cost $.41 instead of $.39 and a "forever" stamp has been introduced. The "forever" stamp can be purchased at the new $.41 rate and will be valid against future increases. Unfortunately (for businesses that heavily rely on shipping - like us) they also raised their rates across the board for everything including Priority Mail. We will be evaluating our shipping rates over the next couple of months and most likely we will have to raise at least some of our shipping rates. We generally lose money on shipping as it is and with this Postal Service rate increase we will be forced into raising our rates in May.

For Example: Our most popular gift baskets weigh approximately 8-10 pounds and generally fit into the $9.95 charge for shipping. Currently to ship one of those gift baskets to Texas it would cost $12.60 so we lose $2.65. On May 14 when the Priority Mail rates increase it will then cost $15.60 to ship that same basket and if we do not raise our rates at least marginally - we will lose $5.65.

Now, this in no way means that we will charge $15 for shipping instead of the current $9.95 for gift baskets in the $50 to $74.99 range. We will run some calculations based upon current shipping destinations and the basket types that are shipped most often and come up with new shipping rates.

Again, we will not raise our rates until the new Postal rates take effect on May 14, 2007. Until then our current shipping rates will still apply.

Gift baskets ordered today will ship tomorrow due to President's Day

Due to President's Day, the Post Office is closed today. As we ship a large percentage of our gift baskets via the USPS I thought I should mention that the shipment will be delayed until tomorrow, February 20th. Have a Great Day! :)

Thank you to our customers

Whew! After a super busy last three weeks we have pretty much sold out of EVERYTHING on our shelves. We met and passed our sales goals for the Christmas season a week ago. I would like to apologize to anyone that was still hoping to be able to place an order. I thought I had ordered more than enough inventory to keep up with demand, but we ran out of just about everything after another big day this past Saturday.

The post office is picking up the last of the orders to be shipped out today. I told them to bring a truck or a van. They are going to need the room.

If our little store is any barometer of the Michigan economy I would have to say that overall, our economy isn't as bad as we might sometimes think. Who knows, maybe this is too small of a sample size, but as a small business owner it gives me a ray of hope.

So, many thanks to you, our customer, for making this our best year ever!

Reminder to place your order by December 20th for Christmas delivery

One week from today (December 20th) marks the "last call" for shipping gift baskets and being assured of their delivery by Christmas. If you are shipping to Alaska or Hawaii you will need to make sure your order is shipped on December 19th. Remember, you can place your order any time and simply choose the "Ship December 18th" option in the checkout process of our online store for a delivery that will be just before Christmas.

If you are shipping your gift baskets here in Michigan you have until December 21st to make sure the gift basket will arrive in time for Christmas.

Free Christmas music streaming your way

There might appear to be something different going on at the All Things Michigan blog. I switched it from a two-column format to a three column format. By doing so, I moved the links that were on the left in a vertical format up to the top in a horizontal format. I just wanted something that would provide a bit more room for posts and to add some fun stuff from time to time. One such "fun" item I have added is the link for Christmas music. Finetune.com allows you to build playlists at their website and then share the playlist through your blog. So I put together a playlist of some old and some new Christmas favorites of mine.

Simply click the 'play' button and the music will begin streaming to your computer.

There are many things that I still want to tweak with the new format, but given that the Christmas season is our busiest time of the year it probably won't happen any time too soon.

Having problems entering a shipping address in our checkout?

Very rarely someone will email or call me and tell me that our online shopping cart doesn't work because it will not accept the address of the person they want to send a gift basket. Every time someone has brought this to my attention I have had to do some digging to see what is wrong and each and every time I have had the same result. The customer has been entering an incorrect address or an address in an incorrect format.

Thankfully there is a way to avoid this. In order to make sure your address is correct you can call the U.S. Postal Service or you can check the address at usps.com.

Hopefully this will keep anyone else from having any difficulties using our online shopping cart.

Have a Great Day!