USPS delays impact central Indiana small business owners

By CNN Newsource

Published February 19, 2025 10:28 am

By Nico Pennisi

INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) — If you’ve noticed that your packages and mail shipped through USPS have arrived late or not at all, you’re not alone.

Small business owners say shipping delays have had a negative impact on their business.

Skye Smith is an architectural watercolor artist.

“I do custom home portraits and works of different TV show icons and Indianapolis icons,” Smith said.

Smith sells her pieces on the Etsy shop LovelyHomesbySkye.

“I would say I package about 10 to 15 orders a week on Etsy. I also work on two to three home portraits a week on the custom side of things,” she said.

She relies on USPS to ship her items.

Smith says service has been slow the past few months.

“I would say 85 percent of them make it fine. It’s not a big deal. Then for that other percent that never make it. Then I’m giving a refund, sending a new one and that’s costing me as well,” she said.

USPS delays are also impacting Sophia Wyrick, owner of Alex and Andy, a reversible pet bandanna shop.

It’s a small business with a big mission: to advocate for stroke survivors and their families.

It originally started as a fundraiser for her Uncle Andy, who suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in 2020.

Alex and Andy sold over 47,000 orders just on the TikTok shop last year.

“As you can imagine, with USPS, that’s our primary shipper. That’s who we use to ship all of our orders. When you have that many orders needing to go out within that two to three-day shipping time frame that TikTok requires you, shipping is very integral to our small business,” Wyrick said.

Wyrick says she’s noticed still has orders from Christmas that have not been delivered.

That just means money out of her pocket.

“Not only did we pay to have the item made and the shipping supplies and all the things that go into making the order, we’re out the cost of that, on top of what the customer paid. We’re in a catch-22,” she said.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.