Now the Steamship Authority and UPS are rushing to make contingency plans, and some Nantucket merchants are starting to panic. Clothing, televisions, hardware, bathroom tiles, most things that can fit in a box usually reach the island on a UPS truck.
“It’s going to put us in a world of hurt,” said Shantaw Bloise, business manager at the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce.
UPS is the biggest carrier of standard deliveries to the wealthy enclave, Bloise said. “I can’t imagine how we’ll be able to function just relying on DHL, FedEx, and the Postal Service.”
Stephanie Correia, who runs Stephanie’s, a clothing and home goods store on Main Street, said she relies on UPS for most of her inventory. And in the summer, when she makes approximately 75 percent of her annual profits, it’s especially important that those goods arrive. She relies on UPS for deliveries to her home, as well.
For an island community 30 miles out to sea, she said, “it’s a lifeline for business, for homeowners, for Amazon.”
Failing to make ferry reservations is practically an unthinkable error for residents and merchants, she said.
