Just after the holiday season rush, the teams at three Baton Rouge UPS Stores are hard at work again, helping locals bring a taste of Carnival season to friends and family around the world.
Shipping king cakes has become a specialty for multiple UPS Store locations in Baton Rouge, including 9618 Jefferson Highway (Jefferson at Bluebonnet), 5261 Highland Road (Highland at Lee), 17732 Highland Road (Highland at I-10) and 7516 Bluebonnet Boulevard (Bluebonnet at Perkins), said General Manager Greg Bushong. Over the past several years, staff at these stores have handled everything from slices to multiple large king cakes, ensuring the delicacies get from local bakeries into the hands of Mardi Gras fans hundreds of miles away.
Bushong spoke about the stores’ methods, lessons learned and the best tips for customers.
How does the king cake shipping process work at your stores?
The customer picks up the king cake from their local bakery of choice, then brings it to The UPS Store. We talk to them about pricing and shipping options. Those options can range from sending it by air so it arrives the next day, or ground shipping, which takes a couple of days longer but is more cost-effective.
What steps do you and your staff take to try to keep the king cakes as fresh as possible?
We place additional packaging inside the king cake box to limit how much it shifts during travel. We’ve learned that some extra materials and processes to make the king cake a little more secure goes a long way. We’re really careful with the packing and go beyond what the general recommendations are.
What do you hear from customers about why they want to ship king cakes?
A lot of people who used to live in Louisiana are now out of state and they can’t get king cakes where they live now, so they ask their families here to send them one. We also have several businesses that send king cakes to their clients or colleagues as a gift. Some companies will send them instead of a Christmas gift, because it’s so unique. We’ve seen businesses come in with 12 or 15 king cakes and a full list of clients to ship them to.
What advice do you have for customers who want to ship a king cake?
I always recommend they ship them on a Monday because it gives you the maximum number of shipping days. If you use ground shipping and send it on a Friday, it’s likely to sit in a warehouse over the weekend.
Do you ship any other food items besides king cakes?
We have dry ice at our Jefferson Highway and Highland Road locations, so we have shipped plenty of jambalaya, sausage, premade frozen gumbo and frozen ingredients to make gumbo. We’ve even shipped boiled crawfish through the UPS next-day air service. The dry ice keeps the crawfish cool, and the customer just needs to reheat them a bit when they get them.
