The 20% SUMMERBLOWOUT discount is ending in just a few days.  Be sure to take advantage of it before it expires. To get the discount, be sure to click through this link and read and follow the instructions.  You can keep using it until the end of August, but the discount does not happen automatically.  You do have to put it on your order during the checkout process.

While I have your attention, take a moment to look at the Poppers And Your Health page that I’ve just added to the web site.  Putting this information here was prompted by some very thoughtful questions from a gentleman in San Francisco (more on this later).  While I may (or may not) be your Daddy, I’m not your nanny and I’m not here to dictate how you live your life or how you have sex.  The health information is presented for you, so that you can make responsible and educated decisions.

Recently I wrote about the changes in postal rates that will take place this month. In almost all cases, the cost that I pay to ship your orders to you will be increasing. However, the shipping charges that I charge you have actually been unchanged since 2003, or else (with the Free Super Saver Shipping) have gone down. So, now it’s time to bite the bullet and pass along some of these costs.

I’ve found that the word “Free” is always a very valuable marketing tool, especially since to some degree I am competing with your local adult novelties store or gay leather shop. You don’t pay them a shipping or handling fee, although you probably pay sales tax. Shopping here, you only pay sales tax if you are in Texas, and since many of my fixed costs are lower than a conventional store, I can often give you lower prices. So, I’m planning to continue to have “Free Shipping” in one form or another.

I am still working out how to deal with all of this, and there’s going to be a combination of small price changes and small adjustments in my current shipping rates. Although the details are not yet set, the first thing I’m doing is to stop shipping outside the United States.

The reason for this is that International shipping is both complicated and expensive. When I send something outside the USA, I have to spend time filling out customs forms, using special packaging, and handing the package over in person to a postal clerk. My software also isn’t able to figure out the costs in advance, since that’s a function both of how heavy the package is (which I don’t know in advance) and where the package is going. The actual number of International orders is tiny. It basically isn’t cost effective to continue.

To my International customers, I’m very sorry to have to take this step. Some of you, I know, have friends or family members in the USA who can receive packages on your behalf, and you have already been using their addresses when you buy poppers from this site. If you do not, write to me for suggestions on online merchants in Europe that may be able to satisfy your needs.

The issue where the customer said he submitted his credit card information but the order came through coded with payment by check or money order has come through again. I had last dealt with this about a month ago.
This time it was a sizable order, over $80 worth, and I hated to see it delayed or held up by a misunderstanding. I’ve had a couple of emails back and forth with the customer, but I don’t know yet if he’s going to resubmit the order or send in a check or what.

In the meantime, I set aside time this afternoon to try to fix the bug in the web site software that allows this problem to happen. I think I’ve licked it. Here on, if you enter your credit-card information and then select the button indicating that you want to pay by check, you’ll get a little box pop-up asking you to choose one or the other. That’s better than just accepting your selection (the payment by check) since nearly everyone who does this seems to really want to pay by credit card.

For what it’s worth, I still don’t really know if I prefer credit card payments or paper payments. On the one hand, with the credit card I know very quickly every morning if the payment is good or not, and I can ship the order right away. I don’t have to make a trip to the bank to deposit a check, nor wait for it to clear. I don’t have to wonder if a money order was printed on someone’s color printer instead of purchased from the store. And so on…

On the other hand, each credit-card transaction has a fee of a little less than 3% that goes back to the company that handles it. There are additional fixed and variable monthly charges which are part of the cost of accepting credit cards.

On the whole, I’d rather have plastic. It makes things go smoother, faster, and allows me to serve my customers better. But, I’m happy to accept paper if that’s the best way for you to pay.

As always, eager to please…

I’ve decided to add a blog to the GayHankies.com online store, and (drumroll, please) this is the first post.

Why am I doing this? First, I want to have more and better opportunities to communicate with my customers. I want to tell them about things happening with the store, and learn from their comments how I can serve them better and improve the store. Second, I want to increase the visibility of the store. Maybe if I write something interesting, someone will think reading the blog will become an end in itself, aside from just shopping at the store. And maybe some of the posts will get links, bring in more site visitors, and improve the store’s search engine rankings. (Yes, there is a method to this madness…)

More than all that, I really just want to write. Because my consulting work is declining these days, I find that I have extra time on my hands. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and I’ve been planning to return to it for years. A long time ago I considered trying my hand at short stories, but I never could get started. Then, with the rise of the Internet and the blogging revolution, I’ve started and abandoned blogs at least two or three times. The problem was, unlike in school days, there was no longer anyone standing over me saying “Write me 1500 words about x by next Wednesday.” And it never got done.

Now, I hope that working with the store I can start to draw on my daily and weekly experiences to provide something to write about. And, with a little luck, that might get enough creative juices going to get me writing other things, too. Stay tuned…