With the amazing response (orders went up an order of magnitude) to the first ever Thanksgiving appreciate ‘Thing’ I was not able to keep up with a current Ask the Alchemist. We will see how this week goes. From the Appreciation Thing you can see we are moving some time soon. To be able to manage that (permits, holiday rush, contractors, the holidays and certification inspections) we are going to close down a little longer than usual. As always I’m going to keep the on-line stores open, but there will be no shipping for a couple weeks.
The last day we will be shipping is Monday December 21. And hopefully if you need anything by that Friday (December 25 – Christmas) you will have ordered well in advance. It would of course be in your best interest to have your last orders in Wednesday December 16. That will allow us processing and packing time to get it out by that Friday. We will do our complete best to get any order out on Monday December 21 if you have your order in by midnight the day before (Sunday the 20th). To summarize:
December 16 – recommended ‘polite’ last order date for shipping.
December 20 – Last day we will guarantee shipping before closing.
December 21 – Last day of shipping.
December 22 – January 3 – Closed for moving and holidays – no orders will ship out but the online stores will remain active.
One final item. When you are choosing your shipping method for the holidays, it is best to add in 3 WORKING days for processing, packing and general mayhem. So if your estimated transit time is 5-7 days (sorry, my software won’t tell you this, you will need to look it up on either UPS or USPS), then you would be well advised to order 10 days before you need it. i.e. December 14 for delivery by Christmas if you live across the country (we are in Oregon). That means, if it isn’t clear, if you order something Monday December 21, Next day Air (or ground or anything) it will NOT make it for Christmas. It will be held until 2016 when we re-open.