New ABU Pricing Not Actually Cheaper

[ForArt]

ABU pulled the wool over our eyes a bit. They made shipping free but also increased diaper base prices claiming “Like for like, your diapers are now on average 5% cheaper across ALL our lines!” But here’s the truth. If you buy individual bags, yes, the price per diaper decreased by about a quarter. But if you buy cases or half cases, your cost per diaper actually went UP. It’s not so much “passing the savings on to customers” as it is just redistributing the costs across the packaging options. Here are the numbers before and after the pricing change. Prices shown per diaper with shipping included:

 

[PoofsNFloofs]

If they're making all shipping "free," then it seems they're just factoring in shipping costs as the package weight increases. That seems reasonable to me.

I've spoken with Casey personally. He runs a pretty tight ship. He knows he'll just lose customers if ABU truly price gouges.

 

[ForArt]

Sure, with free shipping it would be expected that the base price would go up. But the additional claim that we’d be saving money overall is simply not true.

 

[Babyboyzen]

Here's a breaking new flash.
There ain't nothing "free"
It doesn't matter what it is, diapers, ping pong balls or anything else.
If it's shipped.....
It cost money. Plain and simple.
Shipping costs just get buried somewhere else. Like the cost of the product

 

[guest]

as far as being in canada! i dont see any price increase only the shipping aspect would be 5$ more in shipping them what it used to be, tbh abu is fairly not bad compaired to other abdl supplier that are closer to ship then abu is and abu is still half the price to ship, then the counterpart, abu shipping a case is 25, thats a 80 count case also! / rears is 40,and thats at most 48 in a case no longer freeshiping on cases, so whos cheaper '' ABU! >

 

[ForArt]

I wasn’t complaining that things cost money. I was irritated that they basically branded this as a price reduction when it wasn’t that at all. It’s truthful PR that I want.

 

[Nowididit]

ABU pulled the wool over our eyes a bit. They made shipping free but also increased diaper base prices claiming “Like for like, your diapers are now on average 5% cheaper across ALL our lines!” But here’s the truth. If you buy individual bags, yes, the price per diaper decreased by about a quarter. But if you buy cases or half cases, your cost per diaper actually went UP. It’s not so much “passing the savings on to customers” as it is just redistributing the costs across the packaging options. Here are the numbers before and after the pricing change. Prices shown per diaper with shipping included:

No they pulled the wool over your eyes.

If anyone thinks any company is gonna absorb the cost instead of the customer then I suggest they go find a course on reality checks.

When I first got an email from ABU informing me of the free shipping I immediately went and checked the prices of their diapers. Sure enough the prices increased but in all honesty, I'm not surprised and I'm not upset by it.
Tykables does this all the time. Anybody complaining? I haven't read anyone complaining about the cost of Tykables diapers.
See there's a difference here. Tykables already factors the shipping cost in with the price of their diapers whereas ABU didn't. So when ABU says free shipping but increases the price of their diapers it comes as a shock. "How dare ABU increase their diaper prices to offset the cost of shipping"?!
I'm not sure of the old prices for their other diapers but for sure they increased the cost of LKs and AGZs by $4 per bag, $9 per case.
That's about the cost of shipping.

I think what irritates me is that ABU tried to baffle me with bullshit. I mean just fucking say what you really mean. So we're in agreement about truthful PR.

What's wrong with them saying....
"Hey folks we're gonna offer free economical shipping...but unfortunately we'll have to raise the prices of your favorite diapers to cover the cost".

BOOM! There it is. I get it. Thanks for not trying to baffle me with bullshit.

FYI, this is not a deal breaker for me. I love ABU, their diapers and the company as a whole, so I'll continue to buy from them. I knew price increases were coming anyway. It was bound to happen.


ABU Premium diaper prices compared to Tykables. ⬇️

 

[CrinkleBear]

The thing about an average is it doesn't apply to everyone. Not everyone will save money but some people will.
I for example will gladly pay 9$ so I don't have to pay over 20$ in shipping.
That being said diapers are definitely getting too pricy these days.

 

[TigerDL]

Even though shipping costs are often rolled into the advertised prices of items, I still like/prefer places where I get free shipping over paid shipping. As someone who orders lower volume than cases, or just in general, free shipping gives me more freedom to pick however many items I want to include in my order at that time rather than cramming every possible thing I might want now or in the future to maximize that shipping charge I'm paying anyways. It also gives more flexibility to work around items that are out of stock at the time even though I already want to order other items.

For examples, if I want to order 1 pack of diapers, if it's free shipping then I'd be fine with buying just that 1 pack by itself, and coming back another time to buy other packs or whatnot when I want them. But if it's paid shipping, say 1 pack costs $x but 2 packs costs $1.5x and so on, I'll want to add as many items as I might possibly want so I get the most out of the shipping cost I was going to pay anyways and may only go up a fraction per extra pack I add. And if AlphaGatorZs are in stock right now but Little Kings aren't, I can order the AGZs now and not risk them going out of stock by the next time LKs are restocked.


Edit:
And when it's free shipping but with a minimum purchase amount, I find I revert back to the add everything mindset because I might not be able to hit that threshold again if I only want 1 more thing, I would have to wait until there are multiple new things I want to order another batch.

 

[Anemone]

Are all packs cheaper? If so that would be all product lines reduced. Packs are the default stocking unit after all, not cases, pallets, containers etc..

The case-rate may be a less discounted option but if it now better reflects the cost of shipping - which is higher for larger and more massive items - then surely this should be seen as fairer than to expect the cost be subsidised by customers less able to buy en-masse.

Being a business they of course will do whatever they can to sell a change as a positive, if some prices are going down even before accounting for inflation then they are actually delivering one!

 

[ForArt]

Bags are cheaper. But half cases and full cases are more expensive, even though they said, and I quote: ”Like for like, your diapers are now on average 5% cheaper across ALL our lines!”