By Jessie Garrison, The UPS Store

Not everyone realizes that UPS Stores are all individually owned locations, my family has owned the one here in Longmeadow since 1999! It has been our pleasure helping the community - and growing up in Longmeadow for more than 25 years. People see the name UPS and just think of shipping, we offer a lot more services than just that. We are here to help with packing, printing, notary services, package receiving, mailboxes services with an actual street address, and a lot more. I love being able to help the community I grew up in with any of the services we offer.

With the holiday approaching some things I would love to suggest a few things to try and make holiday shipping and returning as painless as possible.

• When packing make sure you are using brand new boxes. Boxes during shipment lose at least 50% of their strength, so even though the box still looks sturdy it will not hold up well with repeated shipments. You also want to make sure your boxes are rated for shipping. Moving boxes do cost less per box than shipping boxes but they are not as sturdy as shipping boxes.

• If you are shipping something fragile utilize a minimum of two inches all the way around of bubble wrap.

• If you are looking for the most economical shipping, UPS Ground is going to be the least expensive.

• Post-holiday returns the biggest piece of advice, we can give is to double-check your instructions. Every company is a little different in how they want things sent back. If the company has given you a shipping label, be aware that the items do need to be packaged and sealed before taking them to whichever shipping company the label is for.