UPS Store on South Side of Chicago suddenly shuts down with dozens of packages still inside

For more than a week, some Bridgeport neighborhood residents have visited their UPS Store to find the doors locked, with dozens of packages inside and no way to get them.

It has been frustrating for customers, and the owner said he gets it. Now he's filed a lawsuit to reopen his doors.

Customers trying to get packages in and out of their Bridgeport neighborhood UPS Store will get no further than the front door this week.

"I've been coming now for about a week and a half, and it's just been closed; no activity, nobody in there or anything," said Ethan Flowers, who has been a PO Box customer at the UPS Store for four years.

The UPS Store at 3231 S. Halsted St. closed without warning, with dozens of packages still inside and more coming every day.

But franchisee Carlos Maxwell said they can't distribute those packages or complete any services other than allowing PO Box customers to get their mail, because they were shut out of UPS computer system Oct. 30 with about an hour of warning, the latest escalation in a years-long battle over Amazon returns.

"The store would be inundated with packages from front to back. We would have a very narrow path where customers could line up in front of the counter to try to transact their business. It became chaotic," Maxwell said.

Maxwell said a UPS-mandated Amazon program buried their business in recent years and caused dozens of staff to quit.

"They're being baptized by fire, essentially. You know, they were being thrown into vicious cycle with regards to the high volume of returns that the store was experiencing," he said.

Maxwell said UPS is now trying to end their business relationship over the problem the company created.

He has filed a federal lawsuit accusing UPS of violating Illinois laws that protect franchisees.

UPS said the location is permanently closing, adding they are "not in possession or control over this location."

"Customers affected by the closure could consider contacting the former operators of this location or their legal counsel," UPS added.

But customers want to know why there aren't more protocols in place to protect them while this battle plays out in court.

A hearing on Maxwell's lawsuit against UPS is scheduled for Friday. Maxwell is asking for UPS to reinstate the store's access to the company's computer system. If that happens, he said the store will reopen.

UPS said it does not comment on pending litigation, but said they are working with Maxwell to get the packages in his store delivered.

In the spring of 2024, boxes piled up in UPS Store locations in Avondale and Bucktown for weeks, after UPS cut ties with the franchise owner, shutting them out the system over a financial dispute. Customers of those stores complained they were misled into thinking the stores were fully functioning, only to find out the store couldn't ship packages they had dropped off. UPS later picked up the packages to deliver them.