Postal Annex handles all shipping needs

Postal Annex on Rancho Santa Fe Road specializes in being the neighborhood business service center, fulfilling packing, shipping and mail delivery needs for local residents and businesses.

With the increased popularity of online shopping, Postal Annex also hopes to be “your personal doorstep” with its private mailbox rentals, avoiding the need for people to “chase the doortag” on deliveries and track down packages.

“We track stuff down so they don’t have to,” owner Chuck Datte said of one of the extra services his Postal Annex provides. “The beauty of shipping here is you don’t ever have to chase packages.”

Postal Annex, which has more than 275 locations nationwide, started out as a retail business service center in the University City neighborhood of San Diego in 1985. Datte opened the Postal Annex in Rancho Santa Fe Plaza two years ago with his wife, Cindy. Residents of San Diego since 1969, they also own a Postal Annex location in Cardiff.

The couple has enjoyed building the business over the past two years through word of mouth and forming relationships with regulars.

As the Rancho Santa Fe Plaza space used to be a clothing store, the location is a lot more spacious than other Postal Annexes. There are 600 mailboxes in the store, with antique gold style fronts.

Boxes and packaging line the shelves, including the store’s special boxes for shipping wine and computers and they offer a variety of greeting cards, including several collections by local artists. A section of stuffed animals, coloring books and other gift items are popular for overnighting last-minute birthday gifts.

Datte would like to bring in artwork from local artists to fill the walls, for now there are a couple photos of his Ferraris — Datte has a passion for classic cars and often brings his cars into the village for the Secret Car Club on Saturdays.

Datte aims for his Postal Annex to be convenient and efficient, to get people in and out and get their business completed quickly. For shipping needs, customers can shop for the best prices from FedEx, UPS, USPS and DHL.

The location offers a notary service, which sees a lot of business on local real estate transactions, and can do printing and graphics for local businesses, realtors and restaurants. They offer services such as bulk printing, brochures, flyers, banners for events or parties with a fast turn-around time.

Datte said they do a lot of fulfillment services for Amazon and eBay and particularly receive a lot of shipments for wine and equestrian equipment.

“We make it easy for anything you want to be shipped here,” Datte said, noting they can hold shipments while residents are out of town and can handle shipments of big items like four cases of wine or big Western saddles.

As a bonus, Datte said the parking lot is big enough for large horse trailers to pull in to come fetch boxes. A sliding door locks up the retail side of the store so box renters can have after-hour access through a key code.

The one-stop-shop also offers key-making and secure shredding of information-sensitive documents.

Postal Annex is located at 162 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road, suite E70, Encinitas, 92024. The store is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call (760) 230-2135.

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