A social experiment --- Shipping

[penguins_dont_fly]

Another thread has prompted me to think about something.

What does Joe Citizen think it costs to ship a package?

So ... If you are willing ... let's ask. And post the responses here 🙂

Take a box, give it a random weight over 1 lb. Keep it under Dim Weight to keep it simple 😉 Pick a carrier, a non-express method and a zone 8 location.

Ask someone that you know (who does not deal with shipping in any way): How much will this cost to ship? Ask more than one person, if possible.

Don't tell them what it weighs, what it's dimensions are, where it is going or what carrier ... Unless they ask. If they ask, tell them the answer to their question (do not volunteer any extra info)  

Come back and tell us:

What the actual weight and dimensions of the box was ... and how much the actual  Retail postage is for your selected carrier

What your non-Shipping subject thought it would cost... if they asked any pertinent questions to come by that amount... and if they actually knew how to look it up (without help).

Let the experiment begin 🙂

[equid0x]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

There are many schools that don't teach the basics anymore. The math is so convoluted - supposedly to make it easier for the kids - but then the parents have no clue how to help the kids with their homework.

History is not the history we learned - they keep taking things out as it's offensive. We use to have to take home ec and the guys shop - my kids took shop 15-18 yrs ago - but I heard that isn't even a course now. We also had to take family living where you learned to balance a checkbook ect..

I just finished reading a book about an EMP that took out all electronics in the US. Most of us older people would have a hard enough time remembering our girlscout and boyscout lessons on survival - but most of the kids and young adults today would be out of luck without their electronics. My son said - there are safety measures in place - it could never happen - I say never say never - because there is always someone smarter than you that can figure a way around things.

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I recently rented an extra room to a tenant who is roughly 12 years younger than me. They had to open a checking account in order to pay me the rent. Every month I've needed to show them how to fill out the check and record it in their check register. 

[equid0x]

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@amysaint_0 wrote:

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@dtexley3 wrote:

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@tunicaslot wrote:

I'm actually grateful for this thread as not everyone does free shipping - nor should they have to. Society has dumbed itself down - first with allowing claculators in High School math exams - now people don't know how to make change at a store if the register doesn't tell them, 

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I have to admit I was a truly grumpy old man at the drive up window recently.  Cost of items $5.54, gave the person $6 and they accidentally typed $6.06 into the register and could not hand me the right change.  I kept handing them back the wrong change and said "try again, that's not right".  After 4 or 5 iterations, I asked them if they had ever been taught in school how to make change.  At this point the girl was so mortified she called the manager, who also, to my surprise, could not make change.  I finally said "give me my ***** 46 cents.  And if you can't figure that out, I want a quarter, two dimes and a penny!!!"

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One of our grocery stores has photos of the change on the register screen. At that people can't figure it out.

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Whhhaaaaaatttttt????

[sam9876]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

Making change is easy, just count it out. Works with any amount.

Total is $1.92, buyer hands you a five.

three pennies - that's 93, 94, 95

one nickel - that's $2

three ones - that's 3, 4 and 5

Thank you, have a good day

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Wouldn't it be easier to simply say that the change is $3.08?

[equid0x]

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@sharingtheland wrote:

I have no idea/don't remember if things like checkbook balancing were offered at my high school.  We had three tracks:  college prep, business and general (business was actually clerical, for girls).  

In college prep, I never heard the words "everyday skills" and most of the courses I took I have not used at any time in my life beyond skating through a few college courses.  I certainly have never been in a situation where I pulled my knowledge of Diffiq (Differential Equations) from the cobwebs in my head to make my day smoother.

I had to laugh at the rocket scientists cooking in my kitchen on Christmas.  They simply cannot resist diddling with buttons and gizmos.  I was making a requested entree for Christmas Eve (yes, I can cook; I just choose not to unless forced) and they couldn't resist setting the timer on the oven to uncover the casserole.  Instead of just looking at a clock or watch.  No one knew the timer turned the oven OFF and the covered giant entree was then no longer actually baking for the rest of the required time.  Dinner was a wee bit late...

My fancy pants microwave is also a convection oven.  Finally, after pushing ever possible button on it and asking their phones how to make it switch to convect, my daughter asked me for the instructions.  You know, the written on paper in a booklet instructions.   They felt so ashamed.

Although, and I don't know how, at some point in time on Christmas their phones alerted them that the power was off in their house.  I think they started using that handy app after we all were on vacation this past summer and the power went out in one of our many deluges of rain weeks and their sump pump quit and their basement flooded and $15,000 later ...

Someone mentioned signing for a loan for a car or something like that.  Now you can do quite a lot of signature required banking and other things online.  Just pick the font you want for your electronic signature.  

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When I bought my house, everything except for the very final paperwork was done online with "Docusign." Only the final closing day did the bank send out a notary with physical paperwork to sign. 

[equid0x]

We have $0.50 coins. They just aren't very common. You can still get them in rolls from the bank, last I knew.

[gracieallen01]

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@disneyshopper wrote:

I'm just tacking my post onto the last response.

Here in California, grocery stores can no longer give away plastic bags, but they can SELL them for 10¢ a piece if we don't bring our own.

So I was visiting my daughter in Chicagoland back in July and mentioned that.  To my surprize, she sent me a bag stuffed with plastic bags!  It made my day!  Obviously, she does very little shipping via USPS.  She sent the plastic bags in one of those bubble ReadyPost envelopes (which are pricey) and she paid $11.80 to ship a 1-lb 2-1/2 oz bag.

I thanked her via Facebook, and told her the next time she wants to do this, to get a FREE tyvek Priority envelope from the post office, and to either fill the bag to almost 2# or take out the extras so it only weighs 1# and she would save paying for that extra pound.

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The pet-peeve I have is when I go in to buy cat food.  I get the small cans and they generally come on a cardboard flat of 24 cans.  Now?  NOOOOO.  They take them out of the wrapped flat and just stack them on the shelf, so that now you have to bring a bag or, if you didn't - thinking they would still be on the flat - you have to buy a bag for $0.10.  Not much choice - buy a bag, run to the car for one or have enough pockets to carry all the cans.  Hopefully you aren't buying anything else.

[castlemagicmemories]

True story.

A guy went into a bank and presented a check to be cashed.  The teller handed it back to him and told him he needs to fill in Pay to the order of.

So that is what he wrote, as she saw when he handed it back to her.

[equid0x]

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

True story.

A guy went into a bank and presented a check to be cashed.  The teller handed it back to him and told him he needs to fill in Pay to the order of.

So that is what he wrote, as she saw when he handed it back to her.

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Cute. I was slightly surprised that I needed to teach this skill. The tenant in question was shocked when I informed them that they could, in-fact write a check to anyone as payment, and all they needed to do was fill it out and hand it over. Their mind was *blown*. 

I recall being given a ditto(wow, aging myself) in class back in maybe like 3rd or 4th grade for homework and the exercise was to "balance this checkbook in its entirety". This material was reviewed again in Home Ec in Middle School and reviewed again in HS at some point in an economics class. 

It doesn't seem that such classes are even taught anymore. 

We were introduced to calculators in HS (fancy graphing ones at that) but could not use them on exams. In class, we were only allowed to use them to check our work after calculating on paper and graphing results on graph paper. Finals were all paper. 

[castlemagicmemories]

Maybe if you talk to the manager, they will keep it on the cardboard flat for you.  My Mom used to order it by the case, as her cat had her convinced he would only eat Salmon by a certain brand.  She would ask the manager to order it for her when needed.

[castlemagicmemories]

I had a large box to send to my sister for Christmas.  I guessed that it would cost $30.00.  It ended up costing $27.95.  I don't know if this counts since I didn't ask anyone.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@sam9876 wrote:

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

Making change is easy, just count it out. Works with any amount.

Total is $1.92, buyer hands you a five.

three pennies - that's 93, 94, 95

one nickel - that's $2

three ones - that's 3, 4 and 5

Thank you, have a good day

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Wouldn't it be easier to simply say that the change is $3.08?

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Well, sure, if you want to look at the register readout and parrot that amount back like a  cashier drone.

Every place I ever ran a register we were required to give change back that way, counting it out to the customer.  I mean, it's easy and the customer can't say you shortchanged them.  (I haven't been behind a cash register in almost 25 years, so...)

I mean, it's simple, basic math that any second grader should be able to do, not a far flung trigonometric equation.  It seems the more technologically advanced we become, the more people regress. Makes me sad.

[dinpavent0]

I am in ny and shipping to california is dreadful for large packages for sure. I sell items that are pretty light, only few ounces so it cost me about the same to ship it anywhere. A bigger package forget it. Thinking I should just change my heavy larger items to calculated shipping instead of all my items free shipping.

[patd3283]

I started our kids on a clothing allowance at age 10.  After 6 months we went to the bank and opened accounts for them (that I had to guarantee.)   At 11, all their lunch money was put in their accounts and they had to be sure they had enough cash.  (Mom was usually the banker and took their checks.)  All started out as enough for 3 months, then moved to 6 months then to a year.  If they ran out of $$$, so sorry, you didn't budget wisely.  They had to produce balanced check books quarterly.

By the time they were in high school, they were fairly responsible financially and able to budget and decide what was really important and worth their (my) dollars.  We carried that program through college to their benefits.  In fact both went to grad school on scholarsips.  One son had saved enough money thru the years for a downpayment on a condo near campus that he still owns to this day.  His friends say he still has the first nickel he earned!

Understanding math, the value of money, how to make change isn't so difficult - just a matter of parenting.   In fact, all of our kids learned math and number combinations by playing black jack with me at home.  They thought it was fun and it stood them in good stead on a couple of family vacations.  One cruise line closed a table after one son cleaned out their cash.  You could almost hear the employees groan whenever he returned.

Math and life can be fun!

Patd