Need the board's creativeness

[mstang67chic]

husband is making plans to open a store of our own. Apparently I'll be the boss and husband will still work his job until we see if the store will make it or not. The store will be a shipping store for packages and we'll also possibly have copying capabilities. Our little town doesn't have a dedicated shipping store short of the post office and husband is pretty excited about this.

Anyhoo....he's trying to come up with a name for the store. He wants to include our town's name so that if someone does a computer search it will come up. The one he has come up with so far is XXXXX Hometown Mail. However, neither one of us are very happy with the mail part of it. I thought XXXX Hometown Shipping but that makes it sound like a trucking company.

So, oh wise and creative ones....what are your ideas?

 

[Hound dog]

I don't have an idea for a name at the moment. But I can tell you that the one we have here like that does a thriving business. I know since i'm one of their customers. lol Having copier service will be a big bonus. Another in this area is to have FAX service too. Ours does all 3. Plus they stock the store with greeting cards and shipping supplies.......which came in handy when I was having trouble finding adequate padding for a box full of gifts I was sending off.

One suggestion...........hire at least one very strong male. Ours is prone to hiring females which is ok for the most part. But when I'm shipping gifts to the grands, some of those boxes were heavy. And I think one may have given one of the female employees a hernia. lol

 

[SkunkMomma]

How about XXXXX Business Center

 

[flutterby]

XXXX Hometown Shipping Services Plus ?

 

[Star*]

Do we get a prize?

Um......what is your hometowns name?

B&B Postal Service

Male 4 U

Pack N Send (You can come to pack and send where B&B will be your friend) groan...

Expressly Yours (pony express rider for logo)

Quicker Shipper Upper....(hey....what did U have?)

Unkley B's Ship Shop. (Pooties contribution)

Heaven Sent - Angels for logos....(we pray you ship your stuff here)

I'll think on it......

 

[mstang67chic]

Daisy...we intend on stocking various boxes, paper, packing peanuts, bubble wrap....all kinds of stuff. Plus the usual envelopes and padded envelopes. I'm not sure if we'll be able to do the fancy copier stuff right away but we could do basic stuff (b&W) and faxes. Didn't think about greeting cards but I'm sure we could get some in there.

I'll pass the ideas on to husband for the name....keep them coming!

 

[mstang67chic]

Do we get a prize?

Yep....if this gets up and running you just might have a surprise box shipped your way. And depending on who is getting on my last nerve it could contain either me, Unkley Brian or difficult child.

 

[klmno]

XXX Hometown Parcel Service

 

[flutterby]

I like Star's "Pack N Send". Much easier to remember, easier to say when you answer the phone and, most importantly, much easier for customers to remember and know what services you offer.

 

[Abbey]

First, congrats on the business.

Second, even more props to working with a family member in a business.

Lastly, one of the biggest selling items I work is called...(oh, I'll get censored) B.U.T.T. juice. Yep. Don't ask. I see some young guy sent to the store to buy something like Desitin. He finds B.U.T.T. juice and buys it. The kids got a diaper rash and this seems to fit what I need.

Moral of the story, keep it simple and I wish you great luck.

Abbey

 

[WhymeMom?]

Hometown Easy Parcel HEP for short...... quick, implies easy to use and tells what you do..... we are "hep" to your needs.....

 

[everywoman]

My husband runs one of these stores in my small town. His is connected to a large franchise. He does shipping, packing, copy services (large format and business related). He has done really well, even with the recession. We are down some from last year, but not a whole lot. The key to success is customer service. He goes above and beyond for "his" customers. Good luck with the business.

 

[susiestar]

Will you accept mail for customers who are not home? Offer mailboxes so people can use that for their address instead of a PO box? LOTS of people here, esp the college kids, have mailboxes at the franchise store that does this in our town. When packages come they don't have to worry about places who don't ship to PO boxes. It makes mail order purchasing far easier and they don't have to skip class/work to accept packages or worry about other people stealing them.

Will you have the USPS pick up at your store or drop stuff off to them? Will UPS and other services pick up from you, or do you have to take stuff to them or make special arrangements? I am sure you have worked that out, but I am curious.

As for names, I need time to think.

At Christmas you could have a Santa come in for a few afternoons. He could "take orders" and then parents could leave a gift at the store so kids could come and pick them up. You could let parents bring in items and/or offer a few items they can choose and pay for. You could offer the Santa for free if they have their own camera or offer a picture from a digital camera for a dollar or three. Then put the pics on a site that they can order copies from. Just don't put names and take it down in January.

Speedy Shipping Service

Can't think of other names right now.

offering a desk and wifi where they could send an image to your copier could be very lucrative.

If you have a small place to do Santa Pics, you should also consider doing passport photos. If you choose to do pics on other occasions PLEASE don't get live bunnies or chicks. So many of them die after they are used for this. Esp the ones who are colored for the occasion. I find this totally creepy and icky.

But a person dressed as the Easter Bunny could be fun.

You could even give away small packs of crayons and a coloring book you print off. There are a LOT of free coloring pages on the internet. Put your name on them and off they go.

 

[mstang67chic]

Thanks EW....husband is really excited about this. We don't really have anything here that does this type of thing. I'll be excited when I see it's actually going to happen! LOL

Susie...those are some good ideas. The way husband is planning it, we'll have various shipping options and they will pick up at our location. He also wants to offer a pick up service for our customers....that we'll go pick up their package but I told him that the shippers already do that. We'll see. We've considered the wifi...not for that but that works too!

We've got some ideas for more services but I think we'll start out fairly basic and expand as we can.

 

[Hound dog]

Still don't got a name for ya. lol

But ours........it's the only one in the county. (tells how rural we are lol) I haven't a clue what the name of it is.......no need. People just tell you to go to the shipping store on such and such street. lmao

I like Star's Pack n Send though, it's simple and easy to remember.

 

[TPaul]

Home town -Postage and Handling

 

[hearts and roses]

I like the Pack & Send also.

Also, Ship 'n' Shop (you could sell all sorts of shipping items such as peanuts, boxes, plastic wrap, tape, labels, even gift cards, wrapping papers, bows, pens and markers, etc. Our shipping store sells everything and if anyone is like me, I always have to grab packing supplies while I'm there because my family steals all the supplies I have at home (for what I don't know!).

 

[Star*]

Well nothing good ever starts without research. I did some light reading about the history of mailing letters. Fascinating really. The history of mail went through some very interesting periods in history even involving Kubla Kahn and the Knights Templar. There are some really out there names that could be attached to the business that would make utterly no sense to anyone unless they were a stamp collector, or studied stamps but....after reading through the material I have a few more suggestions.

Since email is the future and you are opening a business that is historical but necessary - and the art of sending letters has been coined "snail mail" --

How about a logo with a little snail speeding along with a mail bag (and isn't the history behind the word mail just interesting as all get out - it's Irish...malle) to prove that not all "snail mail" is slow.....and call it

SNAIL MAIL
​

My other suggestion that I think is just adorable and appropriate is

HOMETOWN LETTER BOX.
​

The building could be painted just like an old fashioned mail box - which used to be for those of us old enough to remember - red on top and navy blue on bottom with white letters that said - either mail box or letter box.

I think that's easy to remember, cute, it signifies that you are small and small in peoples minds = less cost. (Shrugs)

Look at the bottom of this WIKI - for a picture of a letterbox.

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail[/ame]



I absolutely LOVE the infusion of the Santa idea. I think it could be a HUGE HUGE marketing idea that could go national - really. Santa's mail comes to the LETTER BOX.....and is sent to the North Pole. - excellent suggestion. LOADS of work. (would have to include SASE) - cost....but yeah that could be profitable.

For the Pack N Send?

Bring it to us....We'll pack it up and Send it on it's way!!

....I'll keep thinking.

 

[DammitJanet]

We have two of these in our town. Both of them offer the usual shipping to everywhere, the picking up by Fedex, USPS, UPS. I know one allows shipping to them...dont know about the other because its new. Both sell boxes and shipping supplies. Both have copying - both color and b/w. Now one sells party supplies and the other sells teacher/homeschool stuff. The both do lamination. That is a really good idea to me.

Ask me there names? Got no idea...lol. I think the new one is something like Party Supplies Plus or something. The old one is something like Postal Services Etc.

For your name I think I would have to know the name of your town to get a feel for how to go with it. You know...get a feel for the rythm of the name. Like Pack n Pay is ok but you need to know what the first word is gonna be. If the first word is Seattle then Seattle Snail Mail sounds great...lol. Peoria Pack N Pay goes well...lmao. Madison Mail Boxes...etc.

 

[Momslittleangels]

A few thoughts:

Express Delivery
Express Shipping
Midwest Pack & Ship
Indy Pack & Ship
Speedy Delivery
The Complete Package
Global Packaging
Ship in the Night (ok, maybe that one is "out" there).