USPS is adding a temporary holiday surcharge to Ground Advantage and Priority Mail packages, and it starts this Sunday, October 4. To cover it, we'll be adding a 54¢ surcharge to each order submitted after this Friday's 10:00 AM ET cutoff. The surcharge runs through the USPS peak season and comes off for orders shipping after January 16.

We want to be upfront about why you're only hearing about this now. We knew USPS had proposed a holiday increase again this year, but we never received any notice that it was approved or when it would take effect. We only confirmed those details earlier today. Last year the surcharge didn't kick in until later in October, so we expected more lead time than this. Unfortunately, the timing is completely out of our hands, and we're sorry we couldn't give you more notice to plan around it.

A few things to know:

• The amount is 54¢ per order, nearly the same as last year.

• We ran the numbers against our actual shipments, and this covers what USPS is charging us, nothing more. Most of our ground packages are hit with a 40¢ to 55¢ increase depending on shipping zone, priority is much higher. This covers the higher charges for Priority Shipping as well.

• Orders submitted before Friday's 10:00 AM ET cutoff will not have the surcharge.

• It's temporary. We'll remove it once the USPS holiday pricing ends in January.

With three USPS rate increases already this year, we know every cent adds up, and we don't take passing this along lightly. We simply can't absorb it during our highest-volume season and keep things running the way you count on. Hopefully the additional item shipping changes we rolled out this past weekend will also help to offset some of it and provide you better margins.

Thank you for your patience and for sticking with us. If you have any questions, just reply here or reach out to support.

Here's to everyone having a KILLER Q4!! 💪

Russ

Podzilla