Pickup Information:

• Pickup available by appointment between 10 AM and 6 PM Monday through Friday & between 10 AM and 4 PM Saturday and Sunday.
• Orders can be available for pick up as soon as 4 hours after the order has been placed.
• Orders placed outside of regular business hours can be available to pick up as early as 10AM the next day.
• Pickup time window will be arranged at checkout.
• When you arrive for pickup you will need to send a text to the Twin Cities Crickets number provided with your order confirmation. Your order will be brought out to you.
• Pickup location is: 
• Twin Cities Crickets
  8260 Arthur Street NE
  Suite F
  Spring Lake Park, MN 55432
• Bring your confirmation email when you come to collect your order. 

Shipping Information:

Shipping Days

None of us want these crickets sitting in a shipping facility or truck any longer than necessary. We prefer not to ship cricket orders that will sit unmoving with a shipping service over a weekend, or on a shipper observed holiday. With this in mind please be aware of our shipping practices below when placing your order and choosing your shipping speed and rate.

• Orders for shipping with an estimated 1 or 2 business day transit for delivery, placed before 12 PM Noon Monday - Wednesday, will typically be shipped on the same day the order is placed.
• Orders placed before 12 PM Noon on Thursdays, with shipping that estimates 1-business day transit for delivery, will typically be shipped on the same day for an expected Friday delivery.
• Orders with an estimated 2-business day transit for delivery, placed after 12 PM Noon on Wednesday will be shipped the following Monday.
• Orders with an estimated 1-business day transit for delivery placed after 12 PM Noon on Thursday will be shipped the following Monday.

We reserve the right to not ship crickets on days when high temperatures, in our area and the destination area, are above 90° or below 25° Fahrenheit (our “Safe Shipping Temperature Zone”) for extended periods of time. 

If your order will not be shipping immediately, due to an upcoming weekend, or a shipper observed holiday, we will send you an email and/or text message to confirm when your order will be shipped from our facility.

 

Recommended Shipping Area

Shipping from our location in the Twin Cities of Minnesota we market to the areas we can provide 1 day shipping to.  We desire to only provide services to customers located within 1 or 2 day shipping through UPS Ground service. 

We recommend that potential customers outside of our 1 and 2 day UPS Ground service area consider other cricket farms for their obtaining their crickets. If a customer is outside of our 1 and 2 day UPS Ground service area, and needs to utilize us as a last resort to obtain crickets, we highly recommend choosing at least a UPS 2nd Day Air, USPS Priority Mail Express or FedEx 2Day guaranteed delivery service for shipping. 

Cricket's health and shipping survivability greatly decreases when they are in transit for more than 2 days. We recommend and prefer that crickets are only in transit for 1 day whenever possible.

It is not recommended to ship any crickets that will be in transit more than 2 days. We provide no guarantee on any cricket shipment's health or mortality rate for shipments that are in transit for 3 or more days. It is the customer's responsibility to purchase a shipping option that will allow their cricket shipment to arrive within 2 days.

 

UPS Ground Service Guaranteed Transit Days:

We can provide1 day shipping with UPS Ground service to:

• Minnesota
• Wisconsin
• Iowa
• Extreme eastern North Dakota
• Sioux Falls South Dakota Area
• Parts of North Central Missouri
• Rockford Illinois Area
• Part of the Northwestern area of Michigan's Upper Peninsula

We can provide 2 day shipping with UPS Ground service to:

• North Dakota
• South Dakota
• Nebraska
• Kansas
• Oklahoma
• Missouri
• Illinois
• Kentucky
• Indiana
• Ohio
• Michigan
• Parts of Wyoming
• Eastern Colorado
• Northern Texas
• Most of Tennessee
• Western West Virginia
• Western Pennsylvania
• Montana

 

Safe Shipping & Winter Shipping Protocol

We reserve the right not to ship crickets on days when high temperatures, in our area and the destination area, are above 90° or below 25° Fahrenheit (our “Safe Shipping Temperature Zone”) for extended periods of time. 

We packaged our shipments of crickets based on the expected temperatures during transit and at the delivery location.  These adjustments do affect the size and weight of the packaging and shipping and handling costs fluctuate throughout the year accordingly. 

During hotter weather quantities of crickets will be moved up to the next larger container size, and vented boxes are utilized, to allow more room for the crickets to separate and have better dispensation of heat from the container.  In cooler weather we will package crickets more condensed in blind boxes to conserve heat.

As the winter months approach, we implement our Winter Packaging Protocol.  This protocol goes into effect when overnight lows are 50° F or below and daytime temperatures do not exceed 60° F.  Winter Packaging Protocol procedures are dependent on forecasted temperatures.  As average temperatures drop Winter Packaging Protocols incrementally include:

• Ship with blind (non-vented) boxes.
• Add a heat pack to blind boxes.
• Send blind boxes in sleeves with circulation spacing between heat pack and cricket containers.
• Send blind boxes in sleeves containing a heat pack (or multiple heat packs) with gel packs surrounding the cricket container as a temperature and insulation barrier.

Winter Packaging Protocols progressively increase the weight and dimensions of shipments significantly and shipping and handling charges increase accordingly. Shipping and handling charges are continually adjusted during Winter Packaging Protocols based on current regionally forecasted temperatures.

During Winter Packaging Protocols shipments are also subject to:

• Shipment delays during significant cold weather, to align with the warmest forecasted shipping night of the week.
• Forced upgrade to overnight shipping (on shipments that would normally take 2 or 3 days for delivery) or have an extended shipping fulfillment delay until forecasted daily temperatures significantly improve.

When a Winter Packaging Protocol shipment delay is anticipated, or an upgrade to overnight shipping is required to avoid a significant fulfillment delay, a Twin Cities Crickets representative will make every effort to contact the affected customer, through the contact information provided by the customer during the ordering process, to inform the customer of the situation and discuss any alternatives that may be available.

Shipping Policies

Complete details on all of our shipping policies and procedures can be found on our Shipping Policies page linked at the bottom of this website.

 

Current Shipper Issues:

No company is perfect and shippers are no exception.  There are some issues with each of our shippers to be aware of.  While our preference is to ship through UPS, due to pricing and consistent dependability, we also utilize USPS when UPS is not a viable option.  Here the issues we are currently experiencing with these shippers:

• UPS has flagged certain specific ZIP codes as more costly to ship to. Because of this a Delivery Area Surcharge is added to the standard shipping rate for recipient's in those Zip Codes.  Typically the customers affected are aware of this already and will notice that UPS rates are higher than USPS rates at checkout.

• USPS indicates a "1-business day" delivery estimate for most Priority Mail packages at the order checkout page when ordering for delivery in MN or a surrounding state.  The reality is that we have seen over 50% of our USPS Priority Mail shipments sit at postal distribution centers for multiple days before being sent to the final destinations local post office.  When we have inquired with USPS on this we have been told that Priority Mail deliveries are not guaranteed by their posted estimates and can take up to 3-days for delivery.  Because of this we only utilize Priority Mail for 1-business day deliveries when UPS isn't a viable option due to a PO Box delivery address, extensive UPS Delivery Area Surcharges or UPS not having 1-business day delivery available to the location.