As the holiday season approaches, residents and businesses in Butte, Montana, face significant challenges due to recent UPS and FedEx store closures. Help Me Ben investigates the impact on local commerce, explores the dwindling shipping options available, and provides essential advice for sending and receiving packages during this busy time.
BUTTE, Mont. — Checking your porch every day to see if that package has finally arrived can be tough. But as it turns out, getting that package shipped out in the first place may be even tougher, due to dwindling shipping resources for residents and businesses alike.
For an example, see the Butte Copper Company. The family-owned store has been operating since 1973, selling custom copper wares, jewelry, and memorabilia seven days a week. Owner/operator Jailee Coyne estimates that online sales make up about a third of their business.
But the process of sending out those online orders in a timely manner has become a challenge, as shipping resources have become scarce across the Mining City.
In the past year, both the UPS Store on Harrison Avenue and the FedEx Ship Center at the south end of Butte have closed their doors—places that the Butte Copper Company and others relied on daily.
“Before, we had the UPS Store, we could drop off,” Coyne said. “We had certain hours that we knew we could drop off down there. They would take any package. That was our place to go. But then that closed, so it’s like, oh my gosh, can we schedule a pickup? That doesn’t always work right, and that’s what we kind of found when the FedEx center closed down.”
“[As a result], there’s nobody left to help you here in town,” Coyne continued. “Where do we go now?”
The reason why these shipping spots have closed isn’t fully clear. UPS tells NonStop Local that the decision to close their store on Harrison Avenue was made by the franchisee, based on personal and business reasons.
Thankfully, even with these closures, there are still places to send a package, including UPS and FedEx shipping partners inside Staples (3636 Harrison Ave) and Walgreens (2611 Harrison Ave) respectively, as well as the U.S. Postal Service (701 Dewey Blvd). Those looking to send larger loads can even find help through freight centers at Butte’s industrial park.
But these options don’t come without their difficulties.
“We do a high-volume amount; there’s some times where we’re shipping out 70 to 90 boxes, especially with our wholesale orders,” Coyne said. “Those boxes can get heavy, they can get big, and there’s a lot of them.”
“UPS goes to Staples, and FedEx goes to Walgreens—those are our drop-off locations, and that’s what it would be for residential too,” Coyne added. “They don’t like to accept weights over 50 pounds. And it’s just really challenging because, you’re like, I have 50 boxes like this that need to go out. Where can I bring this?”
And the stress is only about to heighten with the holiday season upon us. USPS data shows a 40% increase in shipping during November and December alone.
But Coyne, who has navigated these troubles daily, offers words of advice to keep the holidays happy for everyone.
Coyne says that those sending out packages can make their lives easier by taking as much of the burden off the shipping company as possible by getting weights, labels, and requirements squared away ahead of time.
As for those waiting for packages to arrive, Coyne offers one word of advice: patience.
“We’re living in this day and age where somebody clicks and they buy and they want it now,” Coyne said. “There is a little bit of processing time. We’re a small operation, a small family-owned business. Sometimes it does take a little bit longer. But our customers are usually very understanding as well.”
“It’s trying times, but we’re lucky that we’re busy, and we’re here,” Coyne continued. “Having those concerns, at least we have business to ship out. Going into the holiday season, we’re going to need patience, kindness, and understanding. We’re just lucky to be a part of it.”
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