EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. — This time of year is always busy at The Packaging Place in East Stroudsburg. There is a flurry of boxes, bows, bags, and more as people rush to ship their holiday goodies.
But owner Frank Monteforte said this year is different from any other.
“I see people I usually see once a year, and now I’m seeing them two or three times already since the beginning of the year because they’re not going to see their loved ones," he said.
More people are shipping more often, and Monteforte said that is not all.
“We’d seen in the beginning, a lot of cleaning supplies, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, wipes, which is still continuing now, but it looks like that supply chain is tightening up again, so we’re starting to see that again come up, so people will be getting a lot of cleaning supplies for Christmas.”
Monteforte said with so much volume this year, try to keep the items you are shipping small and non-breakable and ship early.
“It’s unprecedented territory. We don’t know. There’s nothing to gauge it against, you know? We’ve been doing this 33 years; nothing like this has ever happened before, so this is new ground.”