Yeah, that's not happening. So, would need to put output for another location/warehouse in another country, which also entails all the laws, legalities, and taxes that go along with that as well. Well, yes, I suppose it COULD make shipping cheaper, it certainly wouldn't be viable for the outlay in funds and resources to do so. Bit of a cut the nose to spite the face situation.
And shipping containers, well, those are no longer viable much either these days for most folks. Used to be, you could get a 20' container shipped filled to the brim for about $4k. It got up to about $28k-30k at its highest here this last year. It's now down to much more manageable levels, but easily double to triple original costs, not to mention three to six times the amount of time for it to ship and process. Then there are the fun bits of port backups, lack of rail space/availability on the train tracks, and the one I absolutely love, them trying to find a driver to truck it the distance. We literally had a container sit in port in Savanah just three hours away, for over a month, because they couldn't get enough drivers in there to move all the containers, and they certainly weren't about to let us drive down there in a convoy and unload a container and truck it back with us (believe me, I asked).
Again, not having a dig, just this is the sort of stuff sort of randomly thrown out there of 'well this could be done, or you should just open up a business in another country, or …'. Well yes, if things were easy and cheap, we would most certainly do those things. Or there is the, ' You should work with another company, have your product housed locally ...'. Well, yes, that also COULD be done, but there are legalities that go into it (should someone not follow through, or sort things properly, all sorts of hardships to sort stuff in that manner). Then, of course, there are flooring fees, handling fees, etc. - think Amazon, and then look at why they make stupid amounts of money - usually, because they are shipping, handling, flooring everything for businesses that neither have the ability or want, to deal with warehouses and employees ... and taking a rather nice chunk of the backside of everything.
Frankly, no, we're not setting up shop in another country. Companies getting together and lumping shipping/sales … that's called retail and distribution, already do that. Now, should someone figure out the Portal Gun … I'm all about it, cake or no cake.
So, our options, until something more viable comes along, and we do actively seek them out, or negotiate for better rates (Kelly is a pitbull when it comes to that), it's the postal system as it stands, as completely inefficient and bumbling that it has become over the last few years, particularly with the pandemic.