With just two weekends before Christmas, it appears a lot of Ontario shoppers are taking their business south of the border. A UPS store in Ogdensburg New York has Canadians standing in line for hours to pick up their parcels.
“I've been freezing in line and I’m expecting to be here for a few hours,” said one shopper waiting to pick up some Christmas gifts.
People are sending their packages to the Ogdensburg UPS store to save money on shipping.
“My package was going to be $180 bucks to ship to Canada and it'll probably cost about five dollars instead.”
Owner, Michael Lira has never seen the store so busy.
“This is phenomenal, unexpected growth. December 1st picked up and it’s been going crazy ever since.”
Since the beginning of the month, the UPS store’s shipments have doubled, and that means they’ve had to double up on staff.
“We've received 7000 packages in 4 days.”
People are here to pick up a variety of items from tires, to electronics, to a garage door installation kit.
“I bought a tray warmer to hold stuff for Christmas dinner. My car is full of other packages; this is my third trip to my car,” one shopper said as she carried out her parcel.
Fire regulators say the store can only hold up to 45 people at a time, including staff.
So while the shoppers wait, they get creative in line, bringing chairs, books and lots of warm clothes.
The businesses in the area get creative too, bringing a warm surprise-- pizza and hot chocolate.
