Custom Die-Cut Stickers for Northwest Harbor, New York

Can an order reach me if you have no ZIP code on file for Northwest Harbor? Yes. The street address is what carries an order, and the ZIP field is not what we work from. You give us the street line, the township, which is East Hampton, then New York, and the order is addressed. Nothing about the order changes because the ZIP is blank on our side. If your own mail comes to a post office box, give us the street line anyway for the shipping label and put the box number where the form asks for it.

That question comes up most often from a kitchen rather than a household. Somebody is sizing up a run of labels for takeout containers, the small square kind that goes on a lid so the person carrying the bag knows which one is theirs, and they want to know whether ordering from a shop in Huntington is going to be awkward at the address end. It is not.

## Addressing the order, and what we actually need from you

A die-cut sticker order is addressed the same way a parcel to any street in Suffolk County is addressed. Street number, street name, township, state. If the labels are going to a commercial kitchen rather than a house, put the business name in the address line, because it helps whoever is handing the parcel over at the far end. That is the whole of it. We do not need you to work out which post office serves the road you are on.

## What a small container label comes to

Die-cut stickers are priced by the square inch, and the rate steps down as the count goes up. It is 35 cents per square inch at 1 to 24 pieces, 30 cents at 25 to 49, 28 cents at 50 to 99, 26 cents at 100 to 249, 24 cents at 250 to 499, and 22 cents at 500.

Take the size most container labels land on. A 1.5 by 1.5 inch sticker is 2.25 square inches. Order 120 of them and you are in the 100 to 249 band, so the rate is 26 cents, which puts each label at $0.58 and the run of 120 at $70.20. That is the number to hold in your head when you are deciding whether to print a name and a logo on the lid or keep writing on the container with a marker.

## Why 250 is worth looking at before you commit to 120

Push the same 1.5 by 1.5 inch label to 250 pieces and the rate drops to 24 cents. Each label is then $0.54, and 250 of them is $135.00. The larger run costs less per label and more in total, which is the trade to weigh.

Whether it is the right call depends on how settled the artwork is. If the container name and the logo are not going to change, the larger count is the cheaper way to buy the same label. If you are still trying two versions of a design to see which reads better across a counter, the smaller run makes more sense, and you can move up a band later.

## The order minimum, and why it is not a price floor

An order qualifies at 10 or more pieces, or at $10 of merchandise, whichever comes first. Those are two separate doors into the same room, and you only need one of them. A small run of large labels can clear the $10 without getting near 10 pieces, and a run of tiny labels can clear 10 pieces without coming near $10. Nothing tops the order up to a minimum, so the total you see is the total for what you asked for.

## Getting the artwork right at container-label size

At 1.5 by 1.5 inches you have less room than you think, and the things that go wrong are predictable. Fine outlined type closes up. A logo built to sit on a shop sign loses its detail when it is reduced this far. A cut line that runs tight against the edge of the artwork leaves no margin for the small drift that any cutting has.

The fix is usually subtraction. Drop the tagline, keep the name. Thicken the strokes on lettering that has to survive the reduction. Leave a clear ring of background between the artwork and the cut line. Send the file at the size you want it printed, and tell us whether the cut should follow the shape of the mark or sit as a plain square around it.

## Distance, collection, and the places nearby

Northwest Harbor sits 61.2 miles east of the shop in a straight line. That is far enough that most orders out that way go by post rather than by hand, though local pickup at 205 East Main Street in Huntington is free and open to you if the trip is one you are making anyway.

We cover the places immediately around you on the same terms. East Hampton North is 3.9 miles away, East Hampton 4.1, Springs 4.4, Noyack 6.2, and Shelter Island 6.8. If you run more than one counter across that cluster, there is no reason to split the artwork across separate orders. One file, one order, and label the boxes yourself at the other end.

## Four kinds of order we see for labels this size

A takeout counter with a single recurring design. One name, one mark, one size, ordered in the band that suits how much you get through. The artwork sits on file and comes back out for the next run unchanged.

A kitchen running a rotating menu. Here the label carries the shop name and the dish is written on by hand, which keeps one design working across everything you send out the door.

A baker selling at a market stall. Small counts, often under the 25 piece step, where the $10 merchandise route into the order minimum tends to be the one that applies.

A producer jarring sauces or preserves. Usually two labels rather than one, a face label and a smaller mark for the lid, which is a case where combining both into a single order gets you into a better rate than ordering them apart.

## Five things people ask before they order

**There is no ZIP code on file for Northwest Harbor, so what do I put in the shipping form?** Put the street number and street name, then East Hampton as the township, then New York. That is enough to address the order.

**Can a Northwest Harbor order be collected in Huntington instead of sent?**

Yes. Pickup at the shop is free and there is nothing extra to arrange beyond telling us at checkout that you want it.

**What do 120 of the 1.5 by 1.5 inch container labels cost on a Northwest Harbor order?** At 120 pieces the rate is 26 cents per square inch. The label is 2.25 square inches, so $0.58 each and $70.20 for the run.

**Should a Northwest Harbor kitchen jump straight to 250 instead of 120?**

If the design is settled, yes. At 250 the rate is 24 cents, so each label is $0.54 and the run is $135.00, which is a lower price per piece than the 120.

**My first Northwest Harbor order is only eight labels. Can I still place it?**

Yes, provided the merchandise total reaches $10, because the order qualifies at 10 or more pieces or at $10 of merchandise, whichever comes first. Eight larger labels will often clear it.