After 10 years in the Huntington Square Shopping Center at Staples and Saratoga, the Postal Annex has become the mail equivalent of “Cheers.”
“We have lots of regulars,” said Postal Annex co-owner Gayle Thomas. “We have people that have been coming from Day One. Customers come in and they feel wanted. They feel welcome because we’ll know their name, and we just take really good care of them.”
Thomas said she and her husband were looking for a venture she could run alone until they were successful enough to hire employees.
“I can get my mail here, I can ship it out and get a receipt,” said customer Jack Alspaugh. “If I need to send a package out, it happens here.”
The Postal Annex ships via FedEx, UPS, and the United States Postal Service. It also provides services such as the use of fax machines and notary work. It also can make keys and have small gifts.
“I definitely want a career of my own, but this is something that I’ve worked in so long that I could definitely see taking it over, expanding maybe,” said Gayle’s son Kyle. “More stores around the area, helping people from different parts of town.”
Gayle Thomas said the store can help customers ship practically anything.
“Bring in what you wanna ship, we can pack it up,” she said. “If it’s fragile, we’ll protect it. We have all the supplies: We have boxes, (packing) peanuts, paper-towel wrap -- anything you need, we have it.”
Because they’re considered an essential business, Gayle said Postal Annex never shut down, leading to new customers finding them.
“With all of our gift items, we would have customers come in and shop, but also people were shipping out toilet paper -- any essentials that they could find that their relatives couldn’t.”
And if any children are hoping to get a letter to Santa this year, the Postal Annex can help with that as well.
“Fill (the letter form) out, and either the parents or the kids can come in and put it right into Santa’s letter box,” she said. “And each child will get a letter back from Santa.”
Thomas does suggest if you want your package to get to choice destinations on time, to ship by Dec. 15 – but, the sooner the better.
