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Tom Boblittthe soon to be owner of a UPS store, I gotta respond.......the UPS Stores got a 'bad' name when they were Mail Boxes ETC because they charged 40-60% higher rates than published UPS rates. After UPS purchased the parent franchise company, they tested dropping the rates to nearly that of the normal UPS counters. They dropped the price that the independent UPS Store franchisees paid and now the shipping portion of the expenses are comparable as the UPS Customer Counters. Where you pay WAY more is on packing services. But they're just that.....services. However, if it's packed by someone at the UPS Store, you won't have to worry about claims. They will pay automatically and the odds are it will be packed better. You will pay something similar at a Fedex/Kinkos or Finkos as they're being called in the industry now.....but you won't get better service like you will at an independently owned UPS Store. The person that owns the UPS Store pays UPS a franchise fee and makes a percentage of the UPS Shipping.
There are still some MBE stores out there that still charge the inflated rates as do the pak'n'ship's and other Authorized Shipping Outlets. You shouldn't see big differences between published rates at UPS.com or iship.com and what you'd pay at the UPS Store. So, if you pack it yourself, it's a better deal because the UPS Stores are typically closer and MANY more in a city than the actual UPS customer counters.