A UPS store is coming soon to west Macon. Here’s what you need to know

A UPS store is coming soon to a shopping center in west Macon.

The store will be located within Shoppers Value Foods at 5580 Thomaston Road, Suite 18, which is the anchor for Northwest Commons shopping center, said Chris Patel. He owns both the grocery store and the shopping center.

The UPS store will be a 300-to-400 square foot building within the grocery store, said Patel, who also owns the UPS franchise.

The UPS store will offer “shipping, faxing, printing, notary, passport size photos, mailboxes, shredding — pretty much the whole nine yards,” Patel said.

Services include PO Box rentals.

“They can arrange their personal mailbox and they can have their mail delivered to their mailbox and have a key so they can just walk in and pick up their mail,” Patel said.

Construction is expected to start within the next week or two and the UPS store should be open sometime in September.

“I thought this would be the perfect location for UPS — this side of the community,” Patel said. “We’re trying to do something that is like a one stop shop. So they can come get the groceries, they can buy beer, wine and pick up some stuff … and drop off their package.”

The grocery store is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week, with the hours for the UPS store to be determined.

“As of right now, we are not 100% sure what kind of hours we’re going to have,” Patel said. “They need 60 hours minimum a week, so we were thinking about Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and then we’ll be open Saturday and Sunday as well.”

Patel said he expects his UPS store franchise will be open at least four to five hours on Sundays.

Patel also plans to add four gas pumps with a kiosk and canopy in the parking lot of the shopping center. He expects the gas pumps to be up and running by mid-June or July of next year.

Shoppers Value Foods replaced the old Food Lion grocery store that closed in 2012. Patel, who used to live in the area, decided to purchase the store and open the grocery store in 2016 because he felt that the area needed its own grocery store.

Northwest Commons is also home to Tommy’s Bakery & Cafe, Nail Impressions, Hair Innovations Salon, State Farm Insurance Company and Dollar Tree. The Macon VA Clinic is also within the shopping center but that building not owned by Patel but by the federal government.

Continuing success

Northwest Commons is located across Thomaston Road from the new Publix Super Market at Tobesofkee Crossing.

“We’re running really successful right now,” Patel said. “We’ve been here the last five years and the community is being very generous and they’re supportive.

“We’re constantly getting repeat customers and we’re doing really, really good. Even when the Publix came across the street. It’s been almost one year, and this is like shocking, you know, like the business has gone up after the Publix came.”

Sales are up nearly by 9 to 10% “compared to what we were doing before Publix,” he said.

Shoppers Value Foods started a customer loyalty program two months ago and already 6,000 customers have signed up, Patel noted.

“Every dollar of groceries they purchase they earn one point per $1,” Patel said. ”So, if you purchase $200 worth of groceries, you earn 200 points

“You can redeem those points as of right now toward groceries inside the store, also have $5 off coupons $10 off coupons $20 off coupons depending on the loyalty points that you redeem.”

Once the gas pumps are up and running, customers will also be able to redeem points for gas, Patel said.

At Shoppers Value Foods, customers can purchase products at cost and then a 10% add-on is applied at checkout, Patel said.

Patel noted that he supports local schools in the area.

“We are very friendly and very open to help the needs of the community because at the end of the day, the community is helping us and they are giving food support by giving us the business,” he said. “So, I always want to be clear that I’m always available to help the community, whenever they need something.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2021 at 5:00 AM.