Last Minute Shipping from UPS

The rule of thumb is that smaller packages are cheaper to ship at the Post Office and larger ones are cheaper to ship UPS. So when I found myself with a stack of medium sized boxes to ship this year, I wasn’t sure where to go.

I tried the United States Post Office first. The lines were tremendously long. I had brought one of my packages with me just to see how long it would take and how much it would cost. When I had my turn at the counter, I asked the lady helping me if there was a time of day that they were less busy than others. She barely looked up and grunted that they were always busy this time of year. The package was about $12 to ship Priority Mail.

The next day, I tried the UPS store. The same size package was $9 to ship ground. It turns out that it and 2 other packages I decided to ship that day all arrived the very next day to their destinations. The lines were shorter and moved faster, and the prices were better by $2-3 for each box, depending on where in the country they were headed. They even helped me unload my car and bring them inside.

As far as delivery goes, if most of the UPS delivery people are half as good as the one who comes to my house, I would never ship with anyone ever again. Last week, our UPS man actually refused to bring a package to my door because he could tell it was a Christmas present for me and didn’t want the box to give it away. He ended up delivering into the back of my Jeep while calling out to me, “You better not be peeking!” My husband came home and smuggled the box inside from the back of the Jeep, and I will still get to be surprised on Christmas morning.

If you still have packages to ship, I highly recommend making a trip to your local UPS store. It will be easy on you, and easy on the people receiving your holiday cheer too.

Written by Canape, who is a girl from the deep south who loves her husband, her stepdaughter, her dogs, and hopes to be a mom soon. She’s a musician by trade, and a baker and writer by hobby. She and her husband renovate houses on the side and she writes a personal blog at Don’t Take the Repeats.