A word of advice to retailers that lament losing $3 on shipping charges: let's instead celebrate getting the order. :) Most stores offer free shipping on all items (per my article here ) The goal is to get the sale and eat the shipping cost. If you can charge anything for shipping, consider yourself lucky. Let's consider this example: For a $100 item, a customer pays the retailer $10 to ship the item and it's costing the retailer $13 to ship it. The retailer may think it lost $3, but in fact, it made $47 (a $100 item often has a $50 manufacturer cost; retailer keeps $50 for profit, then subtract anything lost on shipping which leaves the retailer with revenue of $47.) The alternative is the customer goes elsewhere and the retailer makes: $0. This is the reality when a lot of big box stores offer free shipping.