Shipping Bags Comparison: Which Poly Mailer Wins?

I’ve done enough shipping bags comparison work to know the cheapest quote usually turns into the expensive one. One client saved $0.07 per bag by switching suppliers, then swallowed a wave of crushed-return costs because the new film was too thin and the seal failed under rough carrier handling. That’s not theory. That’s a very expensive lesson in order fulfillment, and it happened across a three-month run of 18,000 units shipped from a warehouse in Dallas, Texas.

For Custom Logo Things, I’m going to keep this practical. A proper shipping bags comparison is not just unit price. It includes material, protection, closure type, print quality, shipping cost, labor, dimensional weight, and how the bag behaves after it gets shoved through a sorting belt at 2 a.m. by people who are not exactly handling your package like it’s a silk scarf. If you’re quoting Custom Poly Mailers in 5,000-piece lots, a swing from $0.15 per unit to $0.21 per unit can be the difference between a tidy margin and a painful one.

Shipping Bags Comparison: Why the “Cheapest” Bag Usually Isn’t

I remember standing on a packaging line in a Shenzhen facility while a client insisted on switching from a 3.15 mil poly mailer to a thinner 2.3 mil version because the quote was lower by $0.012 per unit. Tiny number, right? Except the return rate climbed from 1.8% to 4.6% over six weeks because the bags punctured on sharp carton corners and the adhesive strip peeled in humid warehouses. That “savings” got crushed fast. Shipping bags comparison is where small deltas become real money, especially when production is coming out of Shenzhen, Dongguan, or Ningbo and the actual spec is only as strong as the weakest seal.

Here’s the part most people get wrong: the lowest unit price is not the lowest landed cost. A proper shipping bags comparison has to look at freight, storage, labor, damage, postage, and customer experience. If your bag adds 8 seconds of packing time per unit, that matters. If it increases dimensional weight by using an oversized format, that matters too. If it fails once every 200 shipments, that absolutely matters. On a 10,000-unit order, an extra $0.03 in labor and rework is another $300 before you even count reships.

When brands ship apparel, soft goods, socks, lightweight accessories, and other low-breakage items, they usually start with poly mailers because they’re light, flexible, and cheap to move through ecommerce shipping channels. A common build is 2.8 to 3.2 mil co-extruded polyethylene with a self-seal adhesive strip and a 10 x 13 inch or 12 x 15.5 inch format. That’s why poly mailers dominate so many shipping bags comparison charts. They’re not perfect. They just solve the right problem for a lot of businesses.

In a basic shipping bags comparison, you’ll usually run into five categories:

• Poly mailers — lightweight, moisture-resistant, and efficient for apparel.
• Kraft mailers — a sturdier look with more structure and a premium feel.
• Padded mailers — better for small fragile items that need extra cushioning.
• Gusseted shipping bags — useful for bulkier items that need side expansion.
• Recyclable or recycled-content options — good for brands with sustainability goals, depending on real local recycling access.

That’s the map. Not the answer. The right shipping bags comparison depends on what you’re shipping, how fast you pack, and what your customer sees when they open the package. A 350gsm C1S artboard mailer can feel premium for a candle brand in Chicago, while a 2.75 mil poly mailer is often the smarter move for a Los Angeles apparel label shipping 300 orders a day.

Honestly, too many teams compare shipping materials like they’re buying office paper. They’re not. Transit packaging has to survive a brutal trip, and then still make your brand look competent on the other side. I’ve seen a bag do everything right for three test runs and then suddenly fail when the warehouse got humid in August. Packaging has a sense of drama I never asked for, especially in humid facilities in Atlanta or Miami where adhesive behavior changes by the week.

How Shipping Bags Work in the Real World

A shipping bag has one job: protect the product and move it cheaply. That sounds simple until you add carrier sorting, warehouse humidity, one-handed packing, and a customer who orders three sizes and returns two. A real shipping bags comparison should account for how the bag works outside the spreadsheet, where carrier hubs in Memphis, Louisville, and Indianapolis can turn a perfect sample into a mangled mess in under 48 hours.

A standard poly mailer is usually built from a co-extruded film with 2 to 3 layers, often in the 2.5 to 3.5 mil range for most apparel brands. It has a pressure-sensitive adhesive strip, opaque film to hide the contents, side and bottom seals, and a printable outer surface. Some suppliers will quote a 2.8 mil bag like it’s the same as a 3.2 mil bag. It isn’t. Film structure, resin blend, and seal performance all matter. A typical custom run might use 100% virgin polyethylene, while another uses 30% post-consumer recycled content; those two options do not behave the same under heat or compression.

On the factory floor, I’ve seen one bag seal fast but fail in storage because the adhesive was too aggressive in summer heat. I’ve also seen a thicker bag slow packing by 15% because the opening was stiff and the staff had to fight the adhesive liner every time. That’s why shipping bags comparison has to include labor, not just materials. A bag that saves $0.03 but adds friction at pack-out is not automatically a win, especially when the packing line in a Monterrey, Mexico facility is pushing 1,200 units per shift.

Different bag styles behave differently in transit packaging:

• Poly mailers work best for soft goods and items that can bend without damage.
• Padded mailers help when light items need cushioning against impact or scuffing.
• Kraft mailers feel sturdier and often present better for premium brands, but cost more and weigh more.

Carrier handling is the other piece people ignore. Bags slide across conveyor belts, get stacked under heavier parcels, and face moisture at loading docks. If your shipping bags comparison doesn’t ask whether the bag survives corner crush, abrasion, and a little water exposure, you’re not comparing real transit packaging. You’re comparing samples in a quiet office. A 30-inch drop test, a 9-pound top-load test, and a 24-hour humidity hold at 80% RH tell you more than a glossy sales deck ever will.

I’ve tested bags with ISTA-style drop scenarios, and the results can be ugly. One bag looked great in a sample kit, then tore at the seam after two belt transfers and a corner drop from 30 inches. The spec sheet didn’t mention that. The customer certainly noticed it. I still remember the silence right after the first failed test—one of those long, awful silences where everyone pretends to study their notes, while a warehouse manager in Suzhou quietly orders a new carton of backup mailers.

For brands that care about packaging standards, I usually reference the ISTA packaging testing standards and the practical sustainability guidance from EPA recycling resources. Those don’t choose the bag for you, but they keep the conversation grounded in something more useful than supplier fluff.

Key Factors in a Shipping Bags Comparison

A shipping bags comparison works best when you score the bags against the same criteria. I use five: price, protection, branding, speed, and sustainability. If one supplier wants to impress you with a low quote and skips everything else, that’s not a deal. That’s a distraction. For an order of 10,000 printed mailers out of Yiwu, China, the difference between a $0.14 and $0.19 unit price can vanish the minute a seam starts splitting in transit.

Cost and landed cost

Unit price gets all the attention because it’s easy to point at. But a $0.02 difference per bag becomes $200 over 10,000 units, and that’s before freight, storage, and damage costs show up. I’ve seen a client argue for the “cheaper” option, then spend an extra $1,400 on reshipments in one quarter because the bag was too flimsy for their warehouse process. In shipping bags comparison work, landed cost beats quote price every time, whether the bags are shipping from Shenzhen or a domestic converter in Ohio.

Also watch the freight math. A heavier kraft mailer can increase shipping charges more than a thin poly mailer. If you’re moving large volumes, even a 0.5 oz difference can shift dimensional weight and total postage. That’s not a theoretical issue. That’s where your margin quietly disappears. On a 500-piece pilot, the cost change may look small; on a 25,000-piece annual run, it becomes a line item worth negotiating.

Protection level

Protection is about puncture resistance, moisture resistance, seam strength, and whether the item can move inside the bag. A soft hoodie is one thing. A boxed candle is another. A jewelry pouch with sharp edges is another again. In a shipping bags comparison, I want to know whether the bag can handle real abuse, not whether it looks nice in a product photo. For sensitive products, ask for a minimum 3.0 mil film, 1-inch side seals, and a closure strip rated for at least 12 months of shelf storage.

Thickness alone doesn’t tell the whole story. A 3 mil film with poor seal quality can fail faster than a 2.8 mil film with a better resin mix and stronger side seals. I learned that after a supplier negotiation in Guangdong where the factory kept pushing thickness numbers but dodging seal temperature data. Once we ran our own tests, the “thicker” bag lost. Annoying? Yes. Useful? Very. The bag that passed had a narrower seal window, but it held up across 500 drops and a week of hot-room testing.

Branding and print quality

Branding matters if customers see the bag before they see the product. A clean logo, sharp ink, and consistent color can make a $0.18 bag feel like a premium brand touch. A muddy print on a black poly mailer, though? That screams amateur hour. In a shipping bags comparison, print area, registration, and ink adhesion are part of the value. A 1-color print on a matte white mailer is often cheaper, but a 4-color process on a 14 x 19 inch bag can elevate presentation if your design is restrained and the art is prepared correctly.

If you’re comparing custom-printed shipping materials, ask for a press proof or digital mockup before production. On dark films and recycled-content surfaces, ink can shift more than you expect. I’ve had a brand approve a Pantone match on screen, then complain when the actual print looked dull because the substrate absorbed it differently. Same logo. Different reality. Same headache. (And yes, somebody always says, “Can we just make it pop more?” as if that’s a technical instruction.)

Sustainability claims

This area gets messy fast. A supplier may say “eco-friendly,” “recyclable,” or “made with recycled content,” but that doesn’t mean customers can actually recycle it in their local area. A proper shipping bags comparison should ask for exact material content, whether the bag is curbside recyclable, store-drop-off recyclable, or just technically recyclable under ideal conditions that almost nobody follows. A mailer made in Portland, Oregon with 30% PCR content is not automatically better than a virgin film bag if the local recycling stream rejects soft plastics.

This is also where related terms matter. Resin blend, post-consumer recycled content, and curbside recyclability should be confirmed in writing rather than assumed from a sales sheet. FSC is relevant for kraft-based materials and paper components, so if you’re comparing hybrid or paper-forward options, check FSC certification details. If your audience cares about environmental claims, accuracy matters more than buzzwords. Customers can smell fake sustainability copy from ten feet away, especially if the bag is marketed as recyclable but still uses a laminated barrier layer that no municipal program in Phoenix accepts.

Size, security, and closure type

A bag that’s too large wastes material and can increase postage. A bag that’s too small slows down packers and creates seam stress. A good shipping bags comparison should also look at tamper-evident seals, tear strips, and double adhesive options for returns. If you run a returns-heavy business, a dual-adhesive bag can save real labor. Not every brand needs that, but the ones doing heavy ecommerce shipping usually do, especially if a second seal saves 20 to 25 seconds per return.

Bag Type	Typical Unit Cost	Protection	Best For	Notes
Poly Mailer	$0.09–$0.22	Light to moderate	Apparel, soft goods	Low weight, fast pack-out, strong value in shipping bags comparison work
Padded Mailer	$0.18–$0.45	Moderate to high	Accessories, beauty, light fragile items	Better cushioning, higher material cost
Kraft Mailer	$0.16–$0.40	Moderate	Premium branding, lightweight goods	Better presentation, often more weight and cost
Gusseted Shipping Bag	$0.14–$0.35	Moderate	Bulky soft goods	Good for volume, but sizing needs care
Recycled-content Mailer	$0.11–$0.30	Varies	Brands with sustainability goals	Check actual print performance and seal strength

Shipping Bags Comparison by Use Case

The smartest shipping bags comparison starts with the product, not the packaging catalog. I’ve seen teams pick a “premium” bag for a product that could have shipped in a basic poly mailer and saved thousands. I’ve also seen the opposite: a fragile accessory shoved into a flimsy mailer because the buyer was chasing a low quote. Both are lazy decisions, and both show up later as damage claims in warehouses from Nashville to Newark.

Apparel and soft goods

For tees, leggings, sweaters, loungewear, and similar items, poly mailers usually win. They’re light, flexible, and often the most cost-effective in shipping bags comparison testing. If the item can bend safely without damage, you don’t need to overbuy protection. A 2.5 to 3.0 mil mailer is common for basic apparel, while higher-end or heavier garments may need 3.0 to 3.5 mil for better puncture resistance. For a 12 x 15.5 inch garment bag manufactured in Dongguan, a 5,000-piece order might price at roughly $0.17 per unit before freight.

I once helped a denim brand switch from carton boxes to Custom Poly Mailers for smaller orders. The result was a $0.41 per shipment postage reduction on average, plus faster packing by about 11 seconds per order. That doesn’t sound dramatic until you multiply it across 50,000 orders and realize you just bought yourself a better margin story. I’ll admit, I grinned when the numbers came back. Hard not to. The bags came from a supplier in Ho Chi Minh City, and the pilot landed in 14 business days after proof approval.

Accessories and beauty items

For cosmetics, sample kits, small devices, and items with fragile packaging, padded mailers often make more sense. In a shipping bags comparison, the extra cushioning can reduce returns caused by scuffed boxes or cracked inner cartons. The catch is cost. Padding adds material, weight, and sometimes bulk, so you need to test whether the protection is worth the extra spend. A padded mailer with a 3/16 inch bubble layer may add $0.08 to $0.12 per unit, but it can save a $6 replacement serum or a $15 return shipment.

One beauty client I worked with wanted to ship glass serum bottles in poly mailers because the unit price was sweet. I told them that was a terrible idea unless they wanted customer service tickets to become their new full-time department. We moved them to cushioned mailers plus internal dunnage, and the breakage problem dropped fast. Sometimes the right answer is obvious, and sometimes everyone still needs to argue about it for two meetings first. Their final packaging came out of Suzhou with a 12-day production window and a matte white outer layer that printed cleanly.

Subscription boxes and premium brands

Premium packaging is usually about presentation as much as transit packaging. Kraft mailers and specialty mailers can create a better unboxing moment, especially for subscription brands or limited collections. But in shipping bags comparison terms, premium look often costs more in both material and labor. More folds. More handling. More room for mistakes. A 350gsm C1S artboard mailer or a rigid paper-based shipping envelope can run $0.22 to $0.38 per unit in a 3,000-piece run, depending on print coverage and finishing.

That said, a premium bag can be worth it if your brand story depends on the tactile feel. I’ve seen a coffee subscription client use printed kraft mailers from Dongguan to reinforce a recycled, earthy brand identity. Their customers noticed. So did their margins. That’s the tradeoff. The order was 8,000 units, the lead time was 15 business days from proof approval, and the extra spend was justified because their repeat purchase rate climbed in the following quarter.

Returns-heavy businesses

If returns are part of your model, dual-adhesive or reusable return-friendly mailers deserve attention. A strong shipping bags comparison for fashion, footwear accessories, and fit-dependent apparel should include whether the bag can be resealed cleanly. That can cut friction for the customer and lower labor for your support team. A return-friendly mailer with a second peel strip and 1.5-inch closure zone can shave off nearly a minute per return when staff do not need to tape anything.

Honestly, customers hate ugly tape jobs. If the return process feels like a scavenger hunt, you’ve already lost goodwill. I’ve watched otherwise loyal shoppers get annoyed by a stubborn flap and a missing tear strip. Not exactly the brand moment anyone dreams about. A $0.04 upgrade to a dual-seal bag can spare a support team in Austin, Texas from handling dozens of avoidable complaints each week.

High-volume ecommerce

At scale, order fulfillment speed and storage footprint become huge factors. Poly mailers stack flat, take up less warehouse space than boxes, and usually pack faster. That’s why they dominate a lot of shipping bags comparison charts for fast-moving ecommerce shipping operations. If you’re shipping 2,000 orders a day, saving 5 seconds per pack adds up fast. If you’re shipping 50 orders a week, maybe not. In a warehouse in Columbus, Ohio, a 5-second cut across 2,000 daily orders saves nearly 2.8 labor hours every day.

Simple rule: if the item bends safely, poly mailers often win. If it doesn’t, move up the protection ladder. That’s not a slogan. It’s just how the math behaves. The same logic holds whether the bags are printed in Guangzhou or assembled domestically in Pennsylvania.

How do you compare shipping bags without guessing?

A good shipping bags comparison is a process. Not a hunch. Not a supplier pitch. Not “the sample felt nice.” I’ve sat through enough procurement meetings to know that feeling nice doesn’t stop a seam split on day three of a holiday rush. A disciplined comparison usually takes 7 to 10 business days if you already have specs, and 2 to 3 weeks if you need custom print proofs.

1. List product dimensions, weight, and breakage risk. Measure the actual packed item, not the marketing photo. A hoodie in a folded sleeve poly bag is not the same as a flat tee.
2. Request samples from at least three suppliers. Test the bags with the real product. Empty bags are theater.
3. Calculate landed cost. Include unit price, freight, storage, setup fees, and any custom printing charges. A $0.02 lower quote can disappear once ocean freight and import charges land.
4. Measure packing time per unit. Time your team using a stopwatch. If one bag takes 6 seconds longer, that’s labor money.
5. Ship test orders through normal carrier routes. Inspect for tears, seal failures, and scuffing after a real trip, not a controlled desk test.
6. Check customer response. Unboxing, return convenience, and perceived quality all matter. Brand perception is part of package protection too.
7. Place a pilot order. Buy a small MOQ before committing to a large run. I’d rather pay for a pilot than a warehouse full of the wrong bag.

Here’s the part I tell clients who want a fast answer: don’t compare suppliers on bag specs alone. Compare them on how the bag performs with your actual pack-out method. One factory may quote a gorgeous 4-color print on a recycled film, but if the seal window is too narrow for your machine, you’ll spend the next month swearing at line stoppages. I’ve been there. Nobody looks dignified while cutting adhesive liners with a box knife for the fourth hour in a row. A production line in Guangzhou can make a supposedly identical bag behave very differently from one made in Xiamen.

I had a client in Chicago who insisted on custom poly mailers with a thicker adhesive strip because their staff wore gloves in winter. Smart request. The first supplier quoted a nice price but used low-tack adhesive that failed below 45°F in the unheated dock area. The second supplier charged $0.03 more per unit and saved them from nightly rework. That’s shipping bags comparison in the real world: not sexy, just profitable. The winning supplier turned the order in 13 business days after artwork approval, which mattered because peak season was already on the calendar.

If you need a larger packaging mix, it can help to review Custom Packaging Products alongside your bag options, especially if some SKUs need boxes while others can ship in a lighter mailer. A lot of brands mix transit packaging types instead of forcing one format to do everything badly. That’s especially true for catalogs with 40 or more SKUs, where a single mailer size can’t cover every product cleanly.

Common Mistakes in Shipping Bags Comparison

Shipping bags comparison fails for predictable reasons. The weird part is how often smart teams repeat them. Here’s the short list I keep seeing, from startups in Brooklyn to established brands in Los Angeles.

• Choosing by price alone. The cheap bag that raises damage rates is not cheap.
• Ordering oversized bags. Extra space wastes material and can increase dimensional weight.
• Ignoring packing speed. A beautiful bag that slows a line is a cost center.
• Skipping print testing. Ink can look different on black, matte, or recycled films.
• Trusting spec sheets without sample testing. Real products expose weak seals and bad adhesive faster than any PDF.
• Taking compliance claims at face value. “Recyclable” means different things in different collection systems.

One supplier once sent me a batch of “same spec” mailers that were visibly off by almost 6 mm in width. Their answer was basically, “close enough.” No, it wasn’t. That tiny mismatch caused the adhesive flap to crease on our packing line. Little things are never little when you’re shipping 20,000 units a month, especially if the bags were meant for a 10 x 13 inch SKU and arrived closer to 10.25 x 12.5 inches.

Another mistake? Not checking moisture resistance. I’ve seen kraft mailers warp in humid storage and poly bags lose a bit of seal reliability after sitting in a hot container. If your inventory moves through different climates, your shipping bags comparison needs to account for warehouse conditions, not just shipping days. A container sitting 21 days at a port in Houston can test adhesive and paperboard in ways a showroom sample never will.

And yes, print quality can fail in embarrassing ways. I once visited a run where the logo was perfectly centered on the proof and 4 mm low on the production bags because the operator adjusted the feed to compensate for film curl. That sort of thing is why I ask for a physical pre-production sample whenever the order is big enough to hurt. If the supplier is in Quanzhou or Foshan, I want the sample in hand before a 12,000-piece commitment goes out the door.

Expert Tips for Choosing the Right Shipping Bag

After enough sourcing calls and factory visits, I’ve learned that the smartest buyers use a scoring system. If you want a clean shipping bags comparison, score each option from 1 to 5 on price, protection, branding, speed, and sustainability. Then weight the categories based on your business model. A discount apparel brand and a premium beauty company should not use the same scoring formula. Obviously. A supplier in Shenzhen might win on price, while a domestic converter in Ohio wins on turnaround and lower freight risk.

Ask suppliers for exact thickness, adhesive specs, material composition, and freight estimates before you get seduced by a low quote. I also want to know the MOQ, the print method, and whether the supplier can hit repeat orders without changing the film blend. A “same bag” that turns out different on reorder is a classic headache. If they can’t tell you whether the film is 3.0 mil or 3.2 mil, or whether the adhesive is hot-melt or acrylic, keep moving.

Negotiation matters too. I’ve seen a $350 print plate charge disappear when the order volume justified it, and I’ve seen freight terms improve by 8% just because the buyer asked the right question. Supplier pricing is rarely as fixed as it looks on the first email. That’s not me being cynical. That’s just how custom printing works. A 5,000-piece order from Ningbo might close at $0.16 per unit, while a 20,000-piece order from the same plant drops to $0.13 after tooling is amortized.

If your bags ship through different warehouses, test them in hot, cold, and humid conditions. A bag that behaves perfectly in a dry California warehouse may act differently in a humid Atlanta one. Materials move. Adhesives change. Humans notice the failure after the shipment goes out, because of course they do. A three-day heat soak at 95°F can expose weaknesses that a room-temperature sample never shows.

Here’s a practical checklist I use before approving a run:

• Confirmed product size with at least 3 mm of clearance where needed.
• Exact bag thickness and material breakdown.
• Adhesive strip tested after 24 hours and after heat exposure.
• Print proof approved on the correct film color.
• Pilot order tested on live shipments.
• Reorder spec sheet saved with supplier code and revision date.

If branding matters a lot, request a press proof or a digital mockup and compare it with an actual sample under warehouse lighting. I’ve seen gorgeous artwork die under fluorescent lights because the black ink was too soft and the logo lost contrast. Packaging isn’t a screensaver. It has to work in ugly light, at speed, and under pressure. In a real test, I’d rather judge a bag under 4,000K warehouse LEDs than under flattering desk lamps.

What to Do Next After Your Shipping Bags Comparison

Once your shipping bags comparison is done, don’t overcomplicate the next step. Build a shortlist of 2 or 3 bag types that genuinely fit your product, your budget, and your fulfillment process. Then sample them with real product, not empty bags or a single hero item that happens to fit perfectly. A 1,000-unit pilot is usually enough to reveal problems without committing to a full 20,000-piece run.

Send suppliers your actual dimensions, weight, pack-out method, and monthly volume. If you can share photos of how your team folds or inserts products, even better. That gives the supplier a better shot at recommending the right film gauge, closure type, and print layout. A plant in Suzhou can quote the same day if the spec is tight and the dieline is clear.

Then create a simple comparison sheet. I like columns for unit cost, freight, setup fees, packing time, damage rate, and customer feedback. Keep it boring and honest. The point is to compare the total cost per shipped order, not the prettiest quote sheet. If one option is $0.18 per unit but cuts returns by 1.2%, that may beat a $0.15 option with a higher failure rate.

If you’re running a live pilot, track complaints, returns, and postage for at least a few dozen shipments. A bag that looks fine on day one can still fail after a week of handling. One client thought they had a winner until they discovered their adhesive failed after sitting in a warm dock for two days. Not exactly the kind of surprise you want. Their rework cost hit $620 in a single week, which was more than the price gap that made them choose the wrong mailer in the first place.

If your business also needs cartons, inserts, or a mixed packaging lineup, compare those too. Sometimes the right answer is a combination of Custom Shipping Boxes for some products and poly mailers for others. That’s how mature fulfillment operations think. They use the right transit packaging for the SKU, not one format for every order because it feels simple.

Document the final spec. Film thickness. Bag dimensions. Print colors. Adhesive type. Supplier name. Revision date. If you don’t lock that down, somebody in six months will reorder a “same bag” that isn’t the same bag, and then everyone gets to play detective at 9 p.m. on a Thursday. I’ve seen a reorder from Hangzhou come back with a 10 mm shorter flap because the file changed and nobody checked the revision code.

My blunt advice: choose the bag that gives you the best landed cost and the fewest headaches. Fancy packaging is nice. Profit is nicer. If a supplier in Dongguan can quote $0.14 per unit at 5,000 pieces and deliver in 12-15 business days from proof approval, that beats a prettier option that arrives late and creates damage claims.

If you want the short version: shipping bags comparison is about what actually happens after the order leaves your warehouse. Not what the sample looked like on your desk. Not what the supplier promised in a glossy quote. The winner is the bag that protects the product, keeps order fulfillment moving, and delivers the best total cost over time. That’s the only shipping bags comparison that really matters, whether the bags are made in Shenzhen, Suzhou, or a plant in Ohio.