This month I am happy to present Sip and Ship, with locations in Ballard and Greenwood, the Sip and Ship can be your one stop for gifts,
cards, coffee, tea, snacks and all your shipping and receiving needs! It just
happens to be their 19th anniversary today!
Sip and Ship celebrates its 19th birthday this week!! Come take a coffee break with us on Friday, October 15th! ! From our flagshipstore, Ballard Sip and Ship will be proudly serving FREE lattes all day! Each cup brimming with foamy appreciation for what was dreamed up 19 years ago and what has become Seattlites go-to-spot to get errands done quickly, pick-up last-minute birthday gifts and experience the friendliest and most reliable mail and package shipping center in town.
What is the history of your business? How did you start
it and why? Your motivation/ dream for it?
Sip and Ship is all about providing a sense of community, incredible service and shipping choices to our customers.
What is your top seller?
Seattleites love supporting their neighbors, co-workers, friends and members in their community! Making our top sellers locally made Lulumière showe steamers and Northwest scented candle, Seattle Chocolates bars
with their nod to areas within the Pacific Northwest and upcoming holiday
season – making an impressionable gift or care package topper! Last but not least, our crowd-pleasing home brew bag of coffee beans in partnership with local coffee roaster Herkimer Coffee. We don’t know where we’d be without these valuable local makers, vendors, and relationships.
What is your favorite part of running this business?
Our favorite part of running Sip and Ship occurs from both sides of our service counters. Over the years, our team has become renowned as
providing the best customer service experience in Seattle. This is extremely
satisfying from a business ownership perspective especially when we see the
light bulb go off as each new mate is integrated into our service and teamwork ecosystem successfully. Equally as important is seeing connections and relationships that develop between our crew and customers. Often long-term connections that serve our community as we support and encourage our team to take with them our company values into the next phase of their careers and life adventures. We love having a front row seat to milestones in our customers lives and also being a career milestone for our employees. The cherry on top are the life-long friendships this business has afforded us from both sides of our sipping and shipping counters.
How has COVID impacted your business?
Sip and Ship was fortunate enough to be considered an
essential business to our working relationships with the postal service, UPS,
FedEx, and DHL. COVID uncovered a segment of our business that we were
experimenting with, our virtual mailbox rental services. As COVID advanced with directives to corporate and private businesses needing to keep their operations running remotely, or small business start-ups emerging, this increased the need for virtual mailbox services. Which also behaves like having your very own virtual assistant, giving business owners the flexibility to build and scale their business from anywhere without the expensive overhead of a brick-and-mortar office.