This week the local UPS Store, located north of Walmart in Williston, posted a sign on their door announcing their pending closure. The closure only applies to the shipping store, which is a franchise contract. The Williston UPS warehouse will still conduct business as usual and UPS deliveries will not be affected.Â
The UPS Store's last day of business will be Feb. 28. They will accept UPS packages to ship out until Feb. 27 and Amazon returns will be accepted until Feb. 24.Â
The sign stated that the closure stems from the franchise owner's decision to not renew the lease on the store's location or the franchise contract with UPS. Manager Shelby Jorgenson from the UPS Store declined to comment for this article.Â
"The UPS Store was our access point for the city of Williston. We have others located in surrounding towns we deliver to. Sadly, with the UPS Store closing, it will be a big impact for our UPS Center because they were an access point in Williston; helping us with pickups and [they] held [and] delivered packages for us," Williston UPS representative Austin Jackson. "This does not mean [the] UPS warehouse is closing; we are still operating in Williston. We have not yet got any info [of] what we will be doing since we don’t have [an] access point in Williston. There are some changes coming to the UPS center, but none have been confirmed with us yet."
With the UPS Store's closure, there will not be a physical location to purchase a shipping label for a package to be shipped, a location for deliveries to be held for pickup or a location for private UPS mailboxes.Â
Shipping labels can still be purchased by calling UPS customer service or through a third party who has a shipping account with UPS and is willing to provide that service to the community.Â
UPS On Road Supervisor Kacee Duran said that little notice was given to the UPS warehouse regarding the upcoming UPS Store's closure.Â
"With the UPS [Store] closing, it's unfortunate, but we have nothing to do with that. We didn't know. She [Jorgenson] came and told us, very short notice. She told us last week and we were like 'holy cow!' That's very unfortunate," Duran said.Â
Duran explained that the UPS warehouse closed its counter, which used to offer similar services to the UPS Store, due to it not generating enough revenue to keep it open.Â
"We make more money with our drivers picking up packages. Then we have businesses that have contracts with UPS and we pick up their boxes. That's why we closed our counter. We didn't make enough money to have it opened," Duran said.Â
"If there are any businesses around town that are willing to be an axis point or a location to receive packages, we are more than willing to work with them,"Â Duran added.
