International Shipping

So there's this new, free online service that helps you stay on top of buying your household goods like toilet paper and razors. They apparently search the internet for the best price for your preferred brand and you can order it through them and they'll send it to you. It's called Alice.com and it looks pretty cool. It's still in beta stage and only offers their service to US customers within the continental United States. Since I live in Hawaii, I can't use their service. I'm not surprised or annoyed by this, really. I'm used to it. They had a contact form, though, so I sent them an e-mail asking if they were planning on extending their service to Hawaii. Just curious, you know? I received the following reply:

Hello,

We currently do not ship internationally. We only ship to the Continental U.S. Our team is working hard to provide the service internationally and will keep the public posted when changes occur via our blogs & the alice.com homepage.

Thank You.

Internationally? Are you kidding me? You work on the internet, which has flattened the world, and you think shipping to Hawaii is international shipping? I could have accepted a response like that if I had called a 1-800 number 10 years ago or something. This was the first time in a LONG time that I actually encountered one of those misconceptions about Hawaii. It used to be pretty common. You know, stuff like people being surprised that I speak English or wear clothes. But it has been YEARS since I encountered anything like that. So, being the snippy bitch that I am, I e-mailed a reply:

Hawaii is NOT international shipping. =/ Just because we're not part of the continental US does not mean that we're "international."

Anyway, thank you for your reply.

Mean? Yeah, probably a little. Still, I couldn't help myself. I wouldn't want their customer service department to remain under a bizarre delusion that Hawaii is a foreign country.

On a side note, however, Hawaii really can FEEL like you're outside of the United States. Sadly, and much to the chagrin of many Hawaii residents, we are becoming more "mainland" every day. I hope we can keep our other-worldliness.