UPS Store to close; post office to reopen

Students will still be able to receive and send packages using all carriers from the post office.

The UPS Store in Poteat Residence Hall is closing Nov. 30 and will be replaced by a U.S. Postal Service contract post office. The post office will open Dec. 1, so there should not be any gaps in services, said Director of Purchasing Phil Hendrix, who oversees Reynolda Campus Mail Services. The post office will be managed and operated by mail services’ employees.

The retail space currently occupied by the UPS Store will be renovated starting Dec. 1. During the renovation, postal operations will shift to the opposite end of the post office from where the UPS Store is currently located. The renovations are expected to be completed in late December. The post office’s new phone number is 336-758-5281.

Delivery of mail to student and department mail boxes will not be affected. Individuals and departments will still be able to ship packages through UPS, as well as through Federal Express and USPS priority mail.

Students will still receive packages at the postal window as usual. Students are reminded to continue to use this format for packages delivered to them, for all carriers:
Student’s name
Wake Forest University
Box xxx
1834 Wake Forest Road
Winston-Salem, NC 27109

The UPS Store opened Jan. 1, 2005, replacing a contract post office that had been operated by the University. The University decided to bring the retail-postal operations back in-house in conjunction with a plan to combine mail operations on the Reynolda and Bowman Gray campuses, Hendrix said.

Most of the changes associated with the merger will involve behind-the-scenes mail processing and sorting, which will be moved to a new processing center off campus that will serve both campuses. Some campus-mail delivery routes and times will be modified, but no drastic changes are expected, Hendrix said.

The merger will not result in layoffs of mail services employees on either campus. The five employees in Reynolda Campus Mail Services — located in the basement of Poteat Residence Hall — will continue to be classified as Reynolda Campus employees, although some will have new responsibilities in the new contract post office.

The processing of bulk mailings that was done in the basement of Poteat Residence Hall will be moved to the new processing center, located off Jonestown Road in Winston-Salem.

Having a combined processing center will increase efficiency and save money by eliminating the need to purchase processing equipment and mailing software for two separate locations, said Dave Pitts, director of Mail Services and Parking Services for Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The move should also save money by consolidating some delivery routes that couriers for both campuses currently cover.

The 25 employees in mail services on the Bowman Gray campus will remain employees of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Most of those employees will relocate to the new processing center. The postal center in Watlington Hall at the Medical Center will remain open, but the bulk-processing center in the Piedmont Plaza building will close eventually.

— By Kerry M. King (’85), Office of Communications and External Relations