UPDATED Air-cargo Details: http://www.fetchingfoods.com/new-shipping-option/

Fetching Foods sells directly to you, the customer.  We’re not found in stores because our food is made fresh just for your pet when you order.  That means you can grab your food from our location in Las Vegas when it’s ready or have us ship it to you.

Even though Amazon has set the standard with free shipping, they’re not shipping perishable items long distances.  It does cost more to ship perishables, with dry ice, insulated liners, and special packing techniques, which can make the box larger and heavier, adding to the overall cost.  As the weather warms we add more insulation and dry ice, further adding to the size and weight. 

That’s nice and all, you’re thinking, but how do I cut MY shipping costs?  Here are some ways:

1) Simply place your order.  Select your shipping.  We automatically look for ways to optimize your shipment for cost and for overpayments from the UPS/FedEx estimators that set the pricing at checkout.  We’ll issue a refund if it’s more than $7 more than the actual cost.  Shipping costs aren’t calculated by us, but by the FedEx and UPS provided tools built into the checkout process — their rates are dynamic, sometimes changing from hour-to-hour.  

2) Our preferred shipping method is Air Cargo with courier  (Read More) — it’s faster, cheaper in most cases, more reliable.  It’s a flat rate to 75lbs in most cases.  That means it costs the same to ship 1lb of food or 70lbs of food.  We use Southwest, Delta, and Alaska.  You can also opt to save the courier fee by picking up your order from the airport cargo terminal, which is super easy and fast.

3) We can confidently ship raw products with a transit time up to 4 days.  Beyond that requires it special handling by us, like extra dry ice and insulation, which means more size and weight.  That translates to more cost since a larger, heavier box is needed.  In the end it usually doesn’t save money to go with a transit time of 4 or more days, because the weight and size of the package will increase to keep the contents cool for a long trip.

4) We didn’t think this one up, really: buy more, ship less.  Shipping costs aren’t linear.  If it costs $20 to ship 5lbs of food to you, it won’t double to $40 for 10lbs.  It’s more like $5-$8 more for 10lbs.  Our long-time customers on the east coast order once every 4-8wks (or more).  They buy enough to cover their food needs over that period.  If they had weekly, or bi-weekly shipments, the shipping cost would be double, triple, or more over the same period.  They use the shipping savings to buy more food.  (Costco/Walmart have cheap freezers you can use to store food, if you’re short on freezer space.)

5) Another way of looking at shipping is cost per pound.  Consider this example: it costs $20 to ship 1lb to you.  That’s $20/lb.  Because the rates aren’t liner, it may cost $28 to ship 10lbs or $2.80/lb.  It may be $33 to ship 20lbs, which comes to $1.65/lb, or a $23 savings by shipping one order of 20lbs instead of two 10lbs orders of food!

6) Shipping around holidays is the most expensive time of the year.  From Thanksgiving to Christmas expect to pay up to 20% more.  To avoid this, see #4, by buying enough food before Thanksgiving to last through the holidays.

We’d prefer you to save money shipping.  If you’re spending money it should be on food that your pet can benefit from, not on transporting it to you.  Let us know if you have questions.  We’re here to help.