THE UPS STORE: How Much Do UPS Store Franchise Owners Make?
The UPS Store ads call The UPS Store franchise “the perfect opportunity to be your own boss,” a way to “take control of your business future & benefit from a world-class support system.”
How much do The UPS Store franchise owners make for their initial investment of $154,947 – $293,473, ongoing expenses and sweat equity?
According to an one ex-franchisee: not much.
“Former Store Owner” calls The UPS Store franchise a “dirty little scam” that basically exploits wannabe entrepreneurs by seducing them with visits to exceptional, high-volume stores, then, once they’ve signed up, squeezing the profitability out of their stores with mandatory purchases and exorbitant royalties.
Are you familiar with The UPS Store franchise opportunity? Please share a comment below.
To make matters worse, says “Former Store Owner,” their namesake shipper competes directly with franchisees by encouraging consumers to print out their own labels from home and simply drop off their packages at The UPS Store. The UPS Store franchisees get only $1.00 per drop off package, and are cut out of any share of shipping revenue.
Here’s the account we received from “Former Store Owner”:
I remember visiting the area stores and being allowed to ask questions with the area guy standing right there listening. The store owners would not speak freely and would ONLY answer what WE asked. So you had to know what you were looking for. So later, when people came to our store alone and asked about the franchise… we told them the truth and they ran for the hills!
We were driven to all the top performing stores and were duped into thinking this will be us. Little did we know that few stores make that much. Many owners that do OK only get about $40,000 a year. My wife had a job making 60,000!!! We owned the store for a few years and we made NOTHING, zero, nada!!
Here are the problems with the franchise…
They opened way too many stores that have to now compete with each other!
You are FORCED to buy overpriced equipment from the home office. You could easily buy it elsewhere for way less.
You are FORCED to obtain color copiers where you lose money each month. There are already businesses dedicated to this service and you cannot compete.
But here is the biggest dirty little scam!!!
The royalty fee is 8.5% of the gross sales. You are allowed to deduct the cost of stamps and packaging materials. You get 40% of ground package and 50% of air package costs. Shipments are the bulk of your business income.
Sounds great, right?
OK, if you shipped $20,000 in packages you have to pay the UPS 50-60% of that in your next bill so you never earned that money. You really only took in say $10,000.
But you pay a royalty on….. wait for it… $20,000!!!! So the 8.5% royalty is really 17% and that is nuts!
The store shipping rates are the same as the counter but they will NOT advertise that EVER! Many people still believe the outside stores charge more and.. they do!! All of those that are not UPS Stores.
At one point.. UPS was charging people 10% less than the store if they printed their label online. They drop it off at your store and you get… $1.00. But the customer would want YOU to tape their box.. for FREE! So UPS was making out at your expense.
We sold the store a few years ago and now… they have since been evicted and the store closed!
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE UPS STORE FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY? PLEASE SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
After being in business for the past 30 years starting with Mail Boxes Etc. I was making good money until ten years ago when the franchise switch over to The UPS Store and made a fool out of me .I am sitting here working my rear off for UPS paying high rent so they don’t have to . I can see soon in the next 5 years half of the stores will be out of business due to not making money on shipping anymore . You cannot depend on other services to make you enough to have a extra income. If you are thinking of franchising with The UPS Store don’t let them fool you.
F.S
I am a current owner, who has just put my store on the market after a decade. This business used to be profitable, but now the game has greatly changed. IT is not 100 percent UPS’s fault for the problems. Sure haggling and taking our customers away with on-line shipping labels and thinking print serve will ever be lucrative is nonsense. The way people ship things has greatly changed; as people are doing everything on-line now and the old way is becoming obsolete.
You can still do well owning a UPS store but you must buy a top of the line one that would cost you over 300,000 dollars if not half a million.
IF you do buy one then be prepared for 75 percent of your shipments to be drop offs and you must have a huge mail box stream to survive or you will go barely stay afloat.
The entire UPS model is terrible these days.
Most of my packages are drop offs now.
UPS continues to want us to master the print business and we are not Fed Ex. Only a few stores can do well in Print service.
Without solid revenues from shipping and MB services it is impossible to make it unless you own the property and do not have to pay rent.
We opened our store a little less than three years ago with no prior business experience. We passed the “break even” mark at 18 months and experienced 25% growth in 2014. We are ahead of that pace for 2015. The shipping industry is changing and the idea that a store will be highly profitable just through shipping is unrealistic in most markets. However, the broad base of services and products makes it very possible to succeed. The corporate pricing received on supplies and equipment plans, coupled with strong brand recognition and diversified product/service mix can translate into sustainable profitability.
As David noted above, UPS is encouraging print production in the stores. Dave notes that we are not “Fed Ex” and I would agree. I would submit that we don’t want to be either. We are smashing “Fed Ex” services, pricing, and capacity on a daily basis.
In my opinion, a UPS Store is a good platform for business success. The systems are reliable, the brand recognition is powerful, the supply purchasing/leasing advantage is real, and the potential for growth genuine. We are in a medium sized, average market and we are capturing market share aggressively and growing every month.
I’m not sure where Randy’s is getting his information, but I can say that in the Dallas/Fort Worth area that is NOT the case. Fed Ex DESTROYS The UPS Stores with their prices. Their Flat Rate shipping makes it impossible to compete. UPS doesnt and will not offer any Flat Rates AT ALL. It has been a topic of discussion at many owners meetings! Fed Ex also kills us on Next Day Shipments (EX: documents). They are almost 40% cheaper. The ONLY area we consistently beat them in is our large package shipping. Although FedEx will soon close that gap soon I’m sure.
Let’s also take into consideration the 10% discount on UPS shipping we extend to customers who open a “House Account”. Why in the world would anyone want to do that when UPS advertises a 16% discount on their website and they can print their own label (as David said).
Also, The UPS Stores are FORCED to purchase The UPS Store logo printed boxes from Schwartz. The cost for that is 34% HIGHER than comparable boxes through U-line.
Now there’s the new “Retail Items” we are expected to purchase from Office Depot. Once again I can get the exact same items 25-30% cheaper from almost anywhere (even paying retail)!
The USPS products and services are cheaper too. A customer can get a mailbox for 3 months for what we charge for one month on a small mailbox. With the upcharge we HAVE to add to a book of stamps and to metered mail customers look at you like you are the devil himself when you charge them .80 cents for a .49 cent stamp.
Not long ago we were forced by corporate to buy Mini- Pakers (packaging bubble making machines). They will save you money they said. NOT TRUE AT ALL. It would save us money IF it didnt take 3 times as much product to package an item properly! There is a lot of waste on each roll too. Let’s not forget that if the item doesnt have enough protection and you start getting claims that you will pay more for every shipment you insure.
I believe that just about covers EVERY possible area that an owner can earn profit from. The UPS Store as a company will NOT be able to continue at the pace it is going now. Each holiday season we ship less and less. Customers are buying and shipping directly through online retailers. TUPPS is pushing print thinking it will make up for the loss in revenue due to less shipping. It wont and here’s why. TUPPS rolled out the 500 business cards for $5.00 promo. As usual they did it without TESTING and AS USUAL it was an EPIC FAILURE! The print site is NOT user friendly. I spent countless hours trying to help my customers design their business cards online. EVERY SINGLE CUSTOMER GAVE UP! That is inexcusable. Corporate does not know what they are doing and clearly doesnt know their customers either. The UPS Store needs to clean house and start fresh if they ever expect to be relevant. It’s time for them to find a new CEO who has the guts to do what it will take to turn their downward spiral around. Do it right or don’t do it at all. The UPS Store and quality printing is like trying to buy groceries at a hardware store. It simply will not work.
The only way to make a $1M by owning a The UPS Store is to start with $2M. Do the math… It is nearly mathematically impossible to make money with a UPS Store. If you have a couple hundred thousand dollars you don’t need, give it to the homeless. You will be out $200K, but it will make you feel good. My wife and I owned three The UPS Stores for about eight years. It was fun and a change from my normal career, but it cost us $250,000. Do not get hooked into buying a UPS Store.
I agree with all the comments above except for Randy. I have been fighting this trend almost since the day I acquired my franchise. The downward spiral continues. Read on:
Two new programs have been pushed onto The UPS Stores by UPS this year. The first is now called dimensional weight pricing. Forget what the package actually weighs, the weight is now based upon the package dimensions. 60% of our customers who balk at the new pricing structure take their packages to USPS for price comparison and NEVER come back. This is now a daily occurrence. In our area, USPS’s biggest advertiser is the new dimensional pricing of UPS.
Second is the new Access Point Program. Customers would obtain a mailbox from us to have their packages shipped to our store and we could hold them for up to 5 days all for the price of a mailbox. Second method is to pay a nominal fee to us to receive and store packages for non-mailbox customers. Now the Access Point Program says that anybody can have their packages shipped to our store at no charge to them. For that service, we get $1.00 per package. UPS has now found a way to eat into our mailbox revenue. The core of our mailbox business is for customers to receive packages. Now they have no incentive to open a mailbox.
Within the year, my franchise is up for renewal. I am retiring instead and not going to renew. One of my employees had expressed interest in acquiring the franchise but after seeing all the things that are being done to downgrade the business, he has cancelled all plans to acquire a The UPS Store franchise with a dying business future.
Far, that is the truth!!!
UPS continues to get you to invest heavy in copy and print services to offset shipping but the numbers do not add up.
I hope to sell my store soon and I know I will lose money but its better than being fully wiped out in 5 years.
I am guessing I am going to blow 40 grand or so and should of put it up last year.
80 percent of all my shipments are now pre-paid lol. Utterly insane.
UPS has a new program where customers can just ship packages to your store and not have a mail box. Just gets worse and worse.
You have to be a total fool to get into UPS. Very hard to survive right now and I Feel If I do not get out now then my store will be worth zero.
Wow! I was thinking about opening up a UPS Store. However after reading all the comments above, there is no way in heck I would do it now. Thank you all for sharing such great insight. Now whenever I print and online UPS label, I will be thinking about the store owner. & I might rethink about doing that.
You are better off going independent you will get great rates from UPS based on your volume and no royalties Randy is a corporate mouth piece
Thank you for the honest opinion. There is no way I would open a store after reading your review!
I was also considering buying an existing franchise, and won’t be going forward with it based on the comments on this site. The store in question has been keeping a steady, but moderate income stream for the existing owner, but now I know that the business model has been flawed from the outset and continues to get worse. Now I understand why the asking price seemed so low to me, and also why the poor guy hasn’t been able to unload it. My sincere thanks to all the owners here for their candid opinions… you guys/gals have saved me from wasting a lot of time and money and spared me the aggravation of owning a real financial DUD. Best of luck in the future… you deserve it!
Wow
unbelievable. I was looking to buy UPS store and right now working with UPS agent.
Thank you for sharing all this info. Bye bye UPS.
Another WOW, I was plan to get a new UPS store too, that is depressing.
What about a Pak Mail store which utilizes UPS, FedEx, etc?
I was hoping to buying the franchise before, I already filled the profile and registered for the webinar, but having read all of these comments from you honest guys, I changed my mind and I am not interested anymore
thanks for every ones comment. saved me from this failing business.
Well…. Thank you guys. While doing my research I bumped into you guys comments. Now, I’m not interested in investing into the UPS store franchise…… I’ll just get me a hot dog cart. I’ll probably make more money anyway. JK Thank you for the honest info. Good to know.
LOP’s comment on August 30 and Naser’s comment on September 2 are nearly identical. Wait a minute, they ARE identical, word for word. What’s up with that??
roy:
I don’t know what’s up with it, but I deleted LOP’s as a duplicate.
Thanks for pointing it out.
ADMIN
Interesting feedback. Much apprecitated as it does help me in my evaluation. I was looking at some existing stores only and they vary with the markets they serve on asking price. 600k in sales and 130k cash flow were the ones I was looking at mostly. Not sure if this is a stretch until I look at the tax returns for the store. Asking price varies alot on some of these high volume stores. I met someone in my market who ownes 3 and they were all profitable according to him. I know most of your comments on this site would say RUN however I will take all the good feedback with me in my research of some of the existing stores. Compared to the restaurant industry it may not be the dirtiest shirt in the laundry bag but again appreciate the comments.
If you want to buy The UPS Store business with less than $300k, I recommend you to re-think. I believe only about 50% of all The UPS Stores are profitable. Top 25% is making good money. If you have such good store, you would like it but there is slim chance to get such good store from the market.
My wife and I completed the webinar, filled up our profile and we have a phone appointment with a representative tomorrow. But thanks to reading your honest comments, we have decided to not move forward with our plan. I have no words to express my gratitude to all of you for sharing such a value information, you saved us from blowing up thousands of dollars!!
I wish you the best of luck!
Art & Maria from California
Jim’s comments above “You are better off going independent you will get great rates from UPS based on your volume and no royalties Randy is a corporate mouth piece” are interesting considering he doesn’t know anything about me. I don’t work for corporate and never have. I am a retired police officer who opened a store after 30 years of policing. I have attended many meetings with other store owners who have expressed similar concerns. I have also watch as stores have successfully made the migration to a shipping/printing platform.
I don’t know what it was like to open a store a decade ago. I do know that our store opened 3 years ago and has demonstrated steady growth and profitability. The author that mentioned “Dimensional Pricing” was correct in that it impacted our business. Fortunately, dimensional pricing was repealed for the stores shortly after the first of the year and is no longer a factor.
I recognize that i am a minority voice on this forum. There seems to be a preponderance of negative experiences expressed and I do not question the integrity of those contributors. My experience has been positive and continues to be so. The reasons for our success are specific, quantifiable, and available.
Respectfully, Randy
Randy:
Thanks for your initial comment and for continuing to post after being challenged.
“There seems to be a preponderance of negative experiences expressed…”
Well, it is UnhappyFranchisee.Com. There is a marketing department, pr firms, ad agencies, dozens of advertiser-oriented magazines and websites exclusively dedicated to promoting the positives so we focus on the other side. At the same time, the existence of complaints and unhappy franchisees doesn’t mean everyone is unhappy or unsuccessful. I’d like to feature an instance where this system is working as well as why.
“The reasons for our success are specific, quantifiable, and available.”
I appreciate that offer. Please contact me confidentially at UnhappyFranchisee[at]gmail.com if you are willing to share the specifics of your situation. We don’t have to share your name or location, but I would like to be able to include specifics about type of location, market, sales, costs and profitability. Thanks for your willingness to be candid and part of the conversation.
Dear Admin – I have responded to your request via email and look forward to the exchange of information and ideas. Please know that I do not question the experiences of those who have posted their dissatisfaction with the UPS franchise. I appreciate the opportunity to add my teams experiences to the discussion.
Respectfully,
Randy
Thanks, Randy. I have received it.
My wife and I are recent retirees with a magnificent savings stashed away. After traveling and relaxing for a whole fourteen months we were looking for a new business venture to own. The UPS store was the one we settled on and thought it would be great for our foreseeable future since we’re both in our late 40s. Well after reading all of these dubious comments about UPS’ raping of franchisees, we’ve decided to scrap those plans and look in another direction. Thank you guys for saving us from being duped!
I owned a UPS store in Fl and sold it 2 years ago.
I experienced all the negatives comments expressed above and reading them was a deja vu, I felt all the pressure, anxiety and suffocation of being close to the brink of losing all the savings I had.
True: you buy a shipping franchise but…… That’s the least profitable center!!!! Crazy huh!!! 17.5% paid as expressed above.
True: They are pushing for printing, which is expensive for owners and customers, forget to outsource it.
True: investment return almost impossible, try to break even and try to make a profit, I dare you!!!
True: Mailboxes are a very good profit center, but several post offices are now offering the exact same service for a quarter of UPS Store prices, you can use a street address and you get email notifications with usps now!!!
True: Other profit centers wont even cover your meals at the store, cutting keys, flip notes, $5 dollar chargers!!!! What a waste!!!! Or expensive office supplies that nobody buys ’cause you are so expensive!!!
True: The only top ten stores in the area can make a decent profit, but you need to invest $500k or even more!!!! Crazy again!!!
True: The UPS is a huge business…!!!! YES!!!! For MBE in California and the area owner. Think about it, they offer you their well known name in exchange for your life (no less than 10 hours a day… Be your own boss haha) and maybe your $200k / $300k investment for a return of…. $2k maybe after two or three years!!!!
True: you invested to be a drop off facility for MBE, you are the fool providing all the infrastructure they need…. And they get it for free!!!
True: It is mandatory to have two copiers, do the math, maybe .15 .20 cts for black and white and .49, .59 for color and you pay a lease of about $600 a month for both it is about 2000 copies to just pay the lease.
You got a nice idea of what it is, do not say we did not tell you…. And if you go for it anyway, good luck!!!!
I am just repeating what you all know !!
I am a current UPS store owner and its been a very rough ride. The only reason I am still in business is because I have low rent and very low overhead ;even through my store gross profits are way way below the average UPS store .
Each year is harder than the last, because of both UPS policies and the nature of a changing World.
Would I recommend you buy a UPS store? Only if you were a millionaire and could afford a super high end store but anything else would eventually fall apart.
Back in 2007, I was only seeing about 20-30 percent drops offs but now its almost 80 percent DROP OFFS. Customers demand you always tape up their packages and can be rude about it. I even charge for tape on some occasions and it always leads to a big verbal fight. Still I charge for tape.
And if your lucky enough to obtain ” higher end” shippers you better enjoy them because UPS always finds out ,and will approach them and offer them massive discounts and you never see them again.
UPS just uses you as a pawn or a drop off point and nothing more.
Right now , I am trying to sell my store and its been very difficult as I have been on the market for 10 months with no results.
I believe my store can still generate a steady profit for another 3 years but if I still cannot sell it, I would have to dump it and lose over 150,000 dollars.
UPS is trying super hard to push every store into being a printing business like Fed-Ex. Well… I never signed up for this nor is this even possible unless you own super high end equipment and are a master marketer.
There is not future in this business and most franchise business are even worse
Trust me, read this and move on.
I had many years of solid profits but now its all changed into a drop off hub.
Thanks to all the franchise owners for sharing your experiences… you saved me from making an expensive mistake.
I just want to say what Derick said above! Thank you all again!
I looked into buying a few UPS store franchise in Montana, but after meeting with the owner of Montana area ( Brad ) and talking to his franchisees who are not happy with the way that corporate was squishing the profits out of them. I found out that corporate UPS is doing most if not more of what the previous commenters mentioned.
I’m a very successful experienced franchisee looking for opportunities but a UPS Store in Montana is no win situation. Good luck
Remember there are over thousand ups store owners in the US. They are making money and won’t come online and speak the truth. Don’t go by the people who have failed. There is an instance where someone has a duplicate comment. Not going by these reviews. All you have to do is go to a ups store stand outside in the parking lot and watch how many people go inside with a box. That’s $1.00. You can even ask the employee hoe much revenue is coming in per day. Then make the decision yourself
Worst decision of my life. Destroyed everything I worked for in the past. I fly to San Diego on my own money and get to their so called head quarters where they have no record as to whom I am.Training was a joke…a joke as how to be a fool into this nightmare. The CEO comes into the training bizarre having being interrupted from his golf game and spoke for maybe 5 minutes giving us nothing but a Tony Robbins pep speech. I was ready to call it quits…in which should have. My store was always in the top 3 in our region. I feel even worse for those who couldn’t match 550k a year in sales that we could. Stay away from this one.
The profitable and right way of running a mail store
1. You need to own the real estate. A semi-office/warehouse style has the best ROI as it is cheaper than a retail setup. My semi-office/warehouses are a steel build with half of the building (5 foot) in stone. Cat 5 hurricane proof steel frame and it looked very solid. Costs $150K to build for with 1500 sq ft of warehouse in the back. I owned three. None of them join any franchise.
2. You need to heavily invest on mail boxes. There are lots of people want to use mail box service, especially nowadays with lots of ecommerce purchase, no one want the delivery man leaving their precious cargo at the door.
3. A semi warehouse style like I mention above allow you to offer large carton storage.
4. Without joining franchise, you don’t pay royalty fees, even better is that you can beat the hell out of franchise mail box service. I offer $10 a month mail box service to my customers and no other competitor can even come close. I only offer one-size mail box 6″X 6′ X 18″. And I rent out 6500 mail boxes in 3 locations. My only advice is you have to computerize the maintenance of keys. I never envision managing that many keys can be that huge of a task until my customers reach 2000. I ended up BUYING a key and lock making machine not just for saving cost, but I don’t need to run back and forth to my locksmiths.
5. On printing service, ALL YOU NEED is one Xerox C60 or C70. UPS store franchise fool all people into buying so many low quality equipment. I offer more printing options than FedEx and UPS, but in fact many options I outsourced it. The KEY is customer need to feel your complete service. UPS fails in every aspect of that.
6. I MAKE money shipping things with a volume UPS, FedEx and DHL account. I am at their “distributor” rate. The lighter the item the more margin I make and average of 30% margin. Each day I consolidated about ten pallets of shipment and I have my own truck delivering to UPS and FedEx main hub. So my rate is 25% to 45% of standard rate and my cut off time is later than their stores. USPS is the only one that I make less than 13% margin as I offer the same discount rate like eBay.
7. I partner with Uline to offer special shipping for large autoparts. Many large autoparts require pallet size carton and actual pallets.
In short, DO NOT join a franchise mail store just counting on the headquarter to show you how to do business. THINK OUT OF THE BOX and do it the right way. Ask business questions to ACTUAL partners. Ask yourself what kind of business you are in and LIST what you should know. For example, if you say you own a UPS store and you are in shipping business. You should be able to name top three trucking companies that offer rates at what percentage lower than your UPS rate and how YOU do business with the better people. There are a lot of hard work, quick change of decisions and you most likely need to have a lot of legal advice. But this make the main difference of being successful or not in business.
Are you guys narrating these stories about stores in New York or tri-state area?
because that is where i am looking to open a store.
thank you,
Very interesting and informative comments here on UPS franchise. I think Allan Lee hit the nail on the head above. If you want to be in the mail business, don’t expect some huge corporate fortune 500 company to do it for you. If you are really an entrepreneur, you should do it yourself by creating your own mailbox business! I was looking to buy and start a UPS store in NJ as I am being down-sized out of the IT world and thought about starting my own business/franchise. Well, after reading all these reviews on how the mail/packaging/printing industry has changed, it would be a total waste of $350K to buy into one of these stores. Thanks everyone for giving me the true reality of the situation and saving my time & money in investing in one of these stores.
Regards,
Jim
I think it’s funny that 5 guys out of probably at least 20,000 total owners ever convinces all you people to not invest. You know nothing about those 5 guys, their locations, drive, leadership, business acumen, customer service, honesty, etc. That’s .00025% of all owners you’re basing your decisions on. Of note, it is nice to know about royalty payment issues and shipping labels. Everything is negotiable before signing.
I worked with UPS in Canada. Across Canada. I did not meet a single owner of a store that was doing well. Most just wanted to get out of the business, but because they had invested so much, they couldn’t walk away, so had to remain on less than minimum wage.
Everything they had to purchase through UPS, including uniforms, name badges, paper, products was far more expensive than purchasing from the dollar store. The annual fees, ongoing percentages etc. made sure that it was a very minimum earnings operation.
Mostly, migrants looking for an entrance to Canada bought the franchises, then they struggled with the language and the business, before being forced out and losing any investment.
While UPS sold the store to someone else and pocketed the profit. Nope, this is an awful franchise and the business plan is to fleece the franchisees.
yikes! i just had this fuzzy warm conversation with a franchise rep from UPS. says he is sending me all the info and videos to help me understand the process of running a retail store. this email chain has me quite concerned about taking any next steps. I might be heading back to the paint & sip franchise programs. anyone have any input on how they might work?
Dear Admin,
Thanks for the site. I am investing in B2B and B2C services in Baltimore. I have considered adding UPS stores in the portfolio. Great site – the % discontent is irrelevant – the comments here are measured and reasonable and if anything reveal people who value the UPS brand but have financially crippled franchises due to new and or unappreciated corporate business policies. It appears their market did not or no longer align with an imposed business model.
I appreciate those who took time to detail and explain how the model no longer works for them. I was originally dismissive of Randy’s comments, non specific support without addressing specific complaints – it did sound like marketing. But his follow up comments appeared sincere and direct. He stated, “The reasons for our success are specific, quantifiable, and available.” Well, … perhaps my market is similar to his. I really would like to hear what he has to say.
As the administrator you responded, ” I appreciate that offer. Please contact me confidentially at UnhappyFranchisee[at]gmail.com if you are willing to share the specifics of your situation.”
Randy sent the email and there was an acknowledge of receipt. Is any portion of Randy’s email available to share? Would he care to post any part of it himself?
Sincerely
Gino
I am currently going through the approval process for a new TUPSS franchise and have the same request as Gino above. Would you be able to share any more details from Randy that have specifics of his situation? This would greatly help me make the final decision.
Thank you.
TS
Dear Gino and TS,
Sorry for the delayed response. I haven’t visited this site in a while. I am happy to share any info that I can to help people make an informed decision. Our store continues to grow at an aggressive rate. I mean no disrespect to those who have had a negative experience nor do I question their sincerity. I am simply offering that I too have had (and continue to have) my own experience with our store. We just celebrated our 5 year anniversary and are enjoying the journey. Our market is not large and there are 5 other stores in our area. (Note: Our market is neither unique nor affluent)
What I wrote before is still accurate today. “The reasons for our success are specific, quantifiable, and available.” I am also still very willing to freely share our experiences with any who are interested. Pasco is part of the “Tri-Cities” community in Washington state and our store is the Pasco store. The other 5 stores are in other parts of the Tri-Cities. Feel free to send me an email via the store web page and my team will make sure that I get it. Once I do, I will connect with you and answer any questions you may have.
Randy
Like any other business there is always competition. It’s all about your business skill. My wife runs two UPS stores and she is very successful with The UPS Store. Of course there is work, you need to do lots of prospecting.
Buying a franchise is simply buying a job that (if you’re EXTREMELY LUCKY) pays minimum wage.
Run, Forest, Run!!!
The comment that “50% of the UPS Store locations are losing money” is often repeated. I owned a UPS store in the Tucson AZ area for a few years and there were very few stores that went out of business, and that was during the great recession.
Reading these stories is quite pathetic. I was not aware that UPS stores do not make enough profit.
Yes, changing times in all the shipping.
We have an independent store in Gainesville, Georgia. Operated it for full 5.5 years. It is a family business and we are looking for new owners. Great and busy place to work.
We added monograming service to the store. Makes enough to help with rent.
Anyone interested in running this business shipping Fed Ex, USPS and DHL.
We used to ship and receive drop off packages for UPS. Waste of time and energy.
Glad that we decided to shut that down after learning that UPS stores have been paid $1.00 per box.
We were getting 50 cents and UPS drivers stopped scanning drop offs to save time on their route.
Bad things could have taken place as UPS does not accept responsibility for lost or damaged packages that have not been scanned.
Our location is acceptable to a lot of local folks. Great customer base.
Price is way bellow what UPS charges. No franchise fees. No mandates to buy supplies from UPS approved suppliers.
Any questions to be made at 770-712-5000.
It’s so sad to read about all the other store owners that struggle as well. My family has owned a location for over 18 years now. They bought it as a Mailboxes Etc and the corporate structure has only been getting worse ever since.
I don’t want to waste my or your time by listing everything out but I can say for certain that every single thing written above is 100% true. The corporate office is the worst aspect of The UPS Store franchise as a whole. Any time you deal with absolutely anything corporate is going to be a crippling headache.
Our experience has been all over the place. It started out pretty rough, got better, went down, got terrible, and thankfully has been steadily getting better ever since. (Knock on wood it stays that way.) I assume every owner has experienced this. The corporate office isn’t there to help.
Now, that shouldn’t necessarily keep you from buying a UPS Store. It’s not a terrible franchise. You do need to have a lot of money to invest though. If you think it stops at the initial purchase price, you’re sorely mistaken. You have to own multiple locations for it to be profitable at all.
The whole problem is no one seems to have any clue where the franchise is headed. Times are changing. Retail shipping is a dying industry, printing isn’t growing, and UPS itself is stopping people from renting mailboxes. What’s left? I sure don’t know.
Thanks to all whom have let their voices be heard, it had to be difficult to comment on a business model that you have all committed to in hopes of a better future / family / retirement.
I have been soul searching as well for a business to operate w/ my spouse in our golden years, hoping to pass the baton to our family in the near future.
Reading all of the comments above, a liquor / gaming license might not be that bad after all, at least I can drown my sorrows on the way out if it fails.
Thanks again to all store owners for chiming in, I wish you all the very best, and a prosperous future…Merry Christmas 2018 and a Blessed New Year