Shopping with an APO Address

When we first found out we were moving to Germany I thought…shipping costs! My next thought was silly…we will have an APO address. However, in my 4 weeks of being here in Germany I have found that an APO address does not always mean you will be able to order what you need at U.S. shipping prices because a lot of sites do not offer shipment to an APO address, or the shipping price changes to 20 dollars + for a 10 dollar item!
This problem has caused me to perform research on places where I can shop online that don’t require me asking my mom to receive the shipment and then ship it to my APO (how ridiculous of a process is that?)

Places to shop for health food items

1. http://iherb.com/, great for small shipments because shipping is very reasonable.
2. https://www.azurestandard.com/, shipping uses USPS flat rate but prices are such a deal you don’t lose much money on the shipping.

Places to shop for books

1. http://www.amazon.com/, great for books but most other items are not APO friendly.

Places to shop for clothes

1. http://www.victoriasecret.com/, great deals on shipping!

Places to shop for hobbies

1. http://www.cosmocricket.com/, flat rates based on cost of items.
2. http://www.archiversannex.com/, flat rates based on cost of items but coupons are not allowed!

Places not friendly to an APO address

1. http://www.sephora.com/
2. http://www.ulta.com/
3. http://www.amazon.com/, this includes items other than books on their site, not just partners.

This list is short at the moment, but I plan to keep adding to it as the month’s progress so stay tuned! (and thanks mom for putting up with the ridiculousness of letting me ship my Ulta purchase to you so that you can send it to me!)