I think it’s a brilliant idea. For the most part, local business owners have a greater invested interest to provide you with excellent customer service and maintain your loyalty as a customer.

OMG! That makes the story even lamer on UPS’s part. Who was the genius marketer at UPS that said, “Hey, let’s turn over our brand to a bunch of incompetent, locally owned franchisees with no real connection or regard for maintaining our brand.” Yeah. That’ll be real smart.

A well kept secret is that UPS stores are not actually UPS at all. They are franchises and part of a completely seperate company that has a relationship with UPS. Everything costs more there than if you go directly to an actual UPS shipping depot (sometimes as much as double.) I had an experience a while back where I shipped a large amount of gear, and they insisted in charging me hundreds of dollars in insurance even though I said I didn’t want it and have my own insurance which covers my gear while in transit. They said it was “required” on large shipments. I called UPS headquarters to complain and they did help me resolve the issue and get a refund, but it was not easy – this is how I learned UPS stores are not really UPS. I now tell anyone who will listen to stay away. I hope I never treat my customers this way and I hope they never tell others to avoid me!