Why it is ridiculous that we have to pay shipping costs

Recently, I bought a bag of oatmeal online (something with a lot of sports and wanting to see that at least once). It cost six euros. Okay. When I pressed order, another €6.50 was added. I frowned, sighed, and groaned, and maybe said something along the lines of ‘well, come on’. ‘But it was true,’ said my Daan on the right. ‘Everything that doesn't fit through the mailbox costs six euros fifty, that company can't do anything about it.’ Leave it to Daan to know the facts about online shopping and all related delivery costs and arrangements. So I obediently ordered. Also because I could imagine that behind my bag of oatmeal there wasn't an immense multinational lurking from which I couldn't ‘steal’ six euros fifty.

Yet the seed was planted. If I order something from Net-A-Porter, for example. Just imagine, then suddenly a double digit in shipping costs is added. And yes, I always understood that quite well, because wow, there comes a box around it and a bow and a little man at the door who brings it. But to be honest, such a site (and Albert.nl and all the others) just charges the same prices as in the store while they don't have the costs of a building and staff. Okay, someone is needed to slide the package into an envelope, but a total cost item is erased. Especially with a chain like Net-A-Porter, where they ask 1600 euros for a dress without batting an eye, you would expect that shipping costs at least would be on their account.

So if somewhere in blinking red letters it is announced that you should be overjoyed because no shipping costs are charged: indeed order, but don't feel chosen. Because that, that is just normal. I think, huh. What about you?