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By MICHAEL McNARNEY [email protected]
Sunday, December 23, 2001     Page: 3A

EDWARDSVILLE – Still need to absolutely, positively have to have it there
overnight?
   
It’ll cost you.
    With Christmas two days away, business began to slow for shippers of
holiday gifts. Only the wealthy – or the people who don’t mind Christmas
coming on Dec. 28 or 29 – were at post offices and shipping centers Saturday
afternoon.
   
At Mail Boxes Etc. at the Gateway Shopping Center in Edwardsville, the back
room used to store parcels was empty. Gabe Dalessandro, the store’s manager,
said the room was filled to its 9-foot ceilings as recently as Friday.
   
Customers wanting Saturday to get a gift someplace by Christmas Day had to
settle for well after Christmas – the next scheduled United Parcel Service
pickup at Mail Boxes Etc. is Wednesday.
   
However, starting at $169 for an envelope, UPS still offers next-day
service from airports for regular shippers.
   
Cindy Sandly of Larksville came in to Mail Boxes Etc. Saturday afternoon
with two presents – she wouldn’t say what – for her brother Merle Sandly. She
said her brother’s mail delivery has been a disaster since this fall’s anthrax
attack. Her brother is an Air Force master sergeant who lives at Bolling Air
Force Base in Washington, D.C.
   
The two presents were put into a larger box, then the box was filled with
Styrofoam packing peanuts by employee Wayne Smith. For $16.03, Sandly shipped
the box to her brother’s office in Falls Church, Va.
   
Sandly was hoping there was a chance the gifts would arrive by Christmas,
but settled for an estimated delivery date of Dec. 27. Dalessandro said
customers such as Sandly – sending gifts to family – were not dissuaded by
September’s terrorist attacks. As many as 200 packages a day have been shipped
in recent weeks from the store, he said.
   
“I don’t think it affected the heart of families who were not directly
affected by Sept. 11,” Dalessandro said. “Nobody held back. They celebrated
the holiday as they normally do.”
   
Michael McNarney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7305.