by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Holiday procrastination is once again translating to booming business for downtown mailing centers.
All three downtown shippers are benefiting from a sleighfull of last-second shipments that have pushed December sales numbers to two and three times their monthly average. Managers for the UPS Store on Hogan Street, Kinko’s on West Forsyth and Independent Square’s Downtown Business Center said their sales increase every week from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
Tuesday marked the close of their busiest week of the year.
UPS Store owner Terry Wilkins grew accustomed to lunchtime lines stretching out his door during December. The efficiency-minded corporate crowd does most of its mailing on lunch breaks, he said. Wilkins became so concerned that impatience at the end of the line would trump holiday spirit that he began offering discounts to customers who mailed after 2 p.m.
“I started to see a lot of people checking their watches at the end of the line,” he said.
Long lines were a common sight at Kinko’s, as well. Shipping specialist Richard Connell said business has been steady since the business center added FedEx shipping in June, but said December had been “two or three times busier” than prior months.
The holiday shipments tend to be better earners for Kinko’s as well. Customers usually ship resumes or business projects from the business center, but December shipments usually contain gifts that weigh more and cost more to ship, said Connell.
The Downtown Business Center also counts on the season to deliver increased shipping sales. Due to its central location in the Independent Square atrium, the store draws customers from throughout downtown, leading to a 70 percent bump in December shipping traffic, said Gwendolyn Robinson, a customer service representative.
Robinson said shipments were finally starting to slow down Tuesday. She said the previous two Mondays had been the year’s busiest; Monday rushes typically follow busy shopping weekends, she said.
Tuesday marked the deadline for those who want their gifts to arrive by Christmas Day on Saturday. But there’s still hope for those with crosscountry relatives and unwrapped gifts still piled in their car’s back seat.
All three stores offer overnight guarantees but the price climbs steeply as the weekend nears. Kinko’s will guarantee a Thursday shipment to arrive by Friday, but it will cost $86.50 to ship a 10-pound package as far as New York. UPS will guarantee the same package for $63.17. The Business Center will get it there for a relative bargain price of $36.
The surge in package shipments actually means less business for downtown’s United States Postal Service mail carrier.
Wendell Fairly said he’s not allowed to accept packages due to security regulations put in place after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Fairly delivers a lot of Christmas cards and party invitations back and forth among downtown businesses, but said even his regular traffic slows down in December as many downtown workers stay home for the holidays.