Because it takes a lot of muscles to crack open a crate.
And inspect it.
And store it - that is until you’re ready for delivery at your convenience when other things have arrived.
Shippers don't ship to residences.
They only ship to receivers with docks. And the people there are only open during normal business hours for receiving goods.
This is a costly process, because the shipping involves muscles, warehouses, deliveries, gas, trucks, insurance, etc.
Oh, and did I mention muscles?
Unfortunately, designers have to add this cost to their products because it is rare to find a designer with their own warehouses, trucks and delivery guys. If they do, the designer most likely owns their own store.
Because IF designers don’t use these services, they could end up like I did on one particular occasion.
(Let me preface this by saying, yes, I have general liability insurance. But this occasion was sort of in that gray area where it would cost me as much to eat as it would to suffer the rise in insurance cost over time. Ya know?)
Recently, on a day when I thought I'd be generous and nice and try really hard to get something to a client that was actually better than what they paid for, I picked up an end table for them from my receiver. The glass top on the table was broken into giant shards and needed to be replaced. The shipper asked that I get a quote for replacing it locally and sent me the money to take care of it.
I couldn’t find a glass supplier willing to go down to the warehouse and measure the piece of furniture for the top. (And no, you can’t just take your own measurements and give it to them. They measure it very carefully and take responsibility for the measurements, so when it doesn’t fit they will do it again. If they don’t measure it and it hangs over an ⅛”, then that’s tough. You’re responsible. And with this particular client, I didn’t want to take that chance.)
Ultimately, I decided to pick up the table and take it to my glass shop. I wanted to use tempered glass to make sure it wouldn’t break into giant shards again. However, if it did ever break, it would shatter into a million tiny pieces like auto glass. I knew it would be safer, and my client might appreciate the careful thought I put into my decision.
So I had the guys load it into my SUV, cover it with towels, and I then headed off to my glass shop. The table was very secure and was sandwiched in a cushioned, carpeted area.
When I got to the glass shop, a guy came out, measured it and loaded it back into my car. I then took it to my office where it stayed for about two weeks awaiting installation. Every day I'd check on it. I'd make sure it was set away from foot traffic so it wouldn't get touched or moved, at all.
Then came installation day.
I had it picked back up by my warehouse/delivery guys to install with the other furniture for the job. But when the piece got to the job, there was a chip! A chip in that $1,000 furniture piece, at the bottom, under the table, in a place where it would have been difficult for anyone to detect. Well, anyone except my client. They immediately spotted it as they were bringing it in.
I have no idea when the chip was made. But, because it went into my car and was in my studio, I couldn't very well blame it on the warehouse/delivery service.
Lesson learned:
Never put another piece of furniture, or anything valued at over a few hundred dollars, in my car again, for any client. No matter what. Let’s see how long I remember this!