King Arthur Flour shipping costs to Canada--am I crazy??

[canadave]

[rant]

First off, apologies in advance for the rant to follow.

I've heard good things about King Arthur Flour's gluten-free pizza crust mix, so I went to order a box of it from their website the other day.  A small box of the mix is $6.95, and their website says "Ships to Canada" where I live.  Excellent!  Here's the mix in question:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/gluten-free-pizza-crust-mix

I went to checkout, and was shocked to see that they were charging $24.50 for shipping.  That's almost FOUR TIMES the cost of the mix itself!  So I wrote to customer service and asked if this was really what they're charging.

I got a reply.  To my surprise, I was wrong--they don't charge $24.50, they charge even MORE!.....:

"For an order delivered to your Canadian address, you'll be charged our regular ground shipping rate, plus an $18.00 flat fee to cover the higher Canadian shipping costs, customs brokerage fees, and Canadian duty (where applicable).  Since this is a flat fee, we suggest you maximize your (American) dollars by placing fewer but larger orders; getting together with baking friends to place a group order is a good option. So the grand total for your one item would be $31.45."

$31.45 for a one-pound bag of flour mix??  Are they insane??  Am I insane??

The first question that popped into my mind is: Why would they charge a "regular ground shipping rate" (which I assume is their normal shipping rate within the US), PLUS "an $18 flat fee to cover the higher Canadian shipping costs, brokerage fees, etc."?  Shouldn't that $18 fee be INSTEAD OF the regular ground shipping rate, not IN ADDITION TO?

Not to mention, I looked on USPS's website, and it shows that a small package weighing 2 pounds can be shipped from the US to Canada for just under $9.00.  Not to mention that USPS does not charge brokerage fees; and there is no import duty on flour, as far as I'm aware.  Certainly no duty that would be charged to KAF that would necessitate them passing it along to the customer.

I'm in an ongoing conversation with one of KAF's customer service reps over this.  I'm used to things costing a little more to get up here to Canada from the States, but this seems way out of line.  I could understand if it were a solid piece of metal weighing 50 pounds, but it's a small 1-lb. box of mix for crying out loud.

Sigh.

[/rant]

[dmcavanagh]

Bob's Red Mill makes a similar product, perhaps you could find it locally. Check in a health food store, or perhaps check their website for a possible source.

[canadave]

Bob's Red Mill makes a similar product, perhaps you could find it locally. Check in a health food store, or perhaps check their website for a possible source.

Thanks...yes, I've used the Bob's Red Mill product, which is readily available locally.  I'd characterize it as "not bad".  That's why I was hoping to try KAF's mix, in the hopes it would be "excellent"

[chickenparm]

I am wondering if they may feel they are not going to make any real money off one small bag of flour,so they charge higher and encourage you to get people to purchase more to make it more cost effective...hmm.

The only real reason for higher charges are usually taxes the Countries levy on imported goods and their value, but I'm not so sure from what you explained as such.Maybe just being a large company,they cannot send a bag of stuff without accounting for whats inside and have to pay the fees and charges?

If you can get someone close to the border in the USA to mail you some,that might help a lot.
I doubt the company is gonna ship through USPS or some other way thats far cheaper.Keep us posted what they say.They should work with you,not against you.

[jgestner]

Hi Gang
I ordered from KAF and found that even in US to US shipping the product comes out about 5 times what it is worth. I get the catalogs now as a previous customer, and while they have many products that are interesting, or are difficult to impossible to find other places, looking for a local health food, or baking type store will usually get you similar if not identical products for less. Paying mucho dollars for a special pancake mix plus shipping is way more expensive than mixing up your own clone, and probably more than the fanciest restaurant you can find in your community.

If you can find a local source for reasonably priced big bulk sizes of KA bread flour, go for it, but otherwise they are like a way overpriced specialty candy store in Paris, France.

Sometimes raw sugar costs more than standard refined, but a lot of times it isn't worth it depending on the recipe, (I always try to have some raw turbinado sugar for a few recipes that seem to benefit from it). I have puchased some pretty odd flours from KA just to get the pounds / postage in line and most often felt burned and that is without a ship to different country fee.

Without trying to start a total flamewar here, it seems to be that the US eastcoast places that seem to need the most per ounce vs product and most for shipping. I still get a half gallon of real maple syrup for 15.00 dollars from a guy in my own county. Try that in Vemont!

Funny thing is that the KA bread flour is probably Northern wheat grown in Canada.

John in Merrill, WI