Hello, Co-Optioners. We have an important update on Natural Way Mills. For years we’ve had an ordering partner that bought large amounts from Natural Way for his business which helped keep our shipping costs low. He will not be ordering anymore, which means we will be charged the full price for the pallet delivery. This has been running around $92, regardless of how much we order, plus a $12 pallet charge. So the more product we order, the more that cost gets spread around. If we have a small order, it may mean that the final price you pay for some products may be double that of the catalog listing price.
Here is an estimate of what our shipping costs would be per pound for different total order weights, and an example of what the added shipping cost would be for an individual order item.
| Total DCO Order Weight | Shipping cost per LB | Example: Added cost to your order for a 5lb bag of flour |
| 200 | $0.52 | $2.60 |
| 300 | $0.35 | $1.73 |
| 400 | $0.26 | $1.30 |
| 500 | $0.21 | $1.04 |
For 2018, DCO averaged about 267 lbs ordered per month. But this last cycle we only had 150 lbs. We would like to boost our Natural Way order up a bit to get us into a more reasonable shipping rate. If we’re unable to, we will consider not ordering from that vendor every month.
What can you do to help? Check the Natural Way catalog first when you order. That catalog carries things like grains, flours, beans, seeds, salt, and sweeteners. You may already be buying some of the same products from other catalogs, but at a higher price. (For example, Gold ‘n White flour is .72/lb from Natural Way and $1.22/lb through the CPW catalog. Oats are .76/lb from Natural Way and range from $1.08-$1.75 per lb in other catalogs.) Also, if you know of any other people or businesses that would be interested in ordering bulk items like that alongside DCO to share the shipping, please have them contact us at info@driftless.coop.
Product Search Tip: Use the Product Search field at the top of the catalog page (just below the Source selection dropdown) to search across all catalogs and see the various options for a single product. Experiment with clicking the Literal Search box to get cleaner results.