Hi Kate, were you asking me why I don't buy boxes? Not sure if you were addressing me or not, but:
I am all about recycling, reducing, and reusing whenever possible. I could buy new boxes, but why would I need to do that when there are plenty of free boxes available for me to use and I would prefer to save a tree if possible? Anyway, as a retail merchandiser, I am in the backrooms of grocery stores and other retail stores pretty often. There are lots of free boxes for me to take with me when I leave. I can fill up my trunk and put them in the basement and have enough to use for months without having to drive to the store, pick out new boxes, wait in line to buy them, and then drive back home, spending money out of pocket and waiting for reimbursement (yeah I know that this MSC reimburses quickly but that's not the point). That's unnecessary time and money spent, IMO.
I never go out of pocket on the postage, I always come out under the max reimbursement. I also take a photo of the box and receipt using my phone and upload to the report in the app. I don't have paint on my phone and I never use my desktop to do PO reports since it's so simple to just do them on the app.
I do lots of these shops at the base rate because in my area, the locations I do (all close to home) never get bonused. If I don't take them at base, someone else will. And on a weekly basis, between other shops and merchandising, I am going to be within 1 mile of a post office and I have lots of friends and family that love to get things from me. I have a friend in Florida who has young children and a deadbeat ex-husband who is way behind on child support. She has money to put food on the table but there isn't much left for extras. Her kids love to get the snacks that I buy them and are so appreciative of the things their "auntie" in Ohio sends them. And I get to clean out the required purchase clutter from my pantry from doing 50 or more convenience stores per month!!!!
@KateH wrote:
I do not understand why you do not just go to Staples and buy a bundle of boxes, especially if you do 10+ per month. The box is reimbursed up to $1. I buy a bundle of boxes and use paint each time to write the shop number on the box receipt that I have saved on my computer.
I only do the shops when they are highly bonused, or need to sent something to my kids, or someone else. Thus, for my needs the postage reimbursement either covers completely the postage costs, or the overage out of pocket cost is minimal.
Again, people have different needs, or abilities and the base fee can be a good profitable opportunity. May be they have mobility issues, language limitations, lack of shop variety at the region, use it as a filler shop, short lunch time breaks or good to use after dropping kids to school in early morning, need to mail ebay or small business merchandise to clients, need to mail something to relatives.