Benefits
Members Helping
Members for 27 Years.
AMPC is characterized and driven by the camaraderie, support, and advice from professionals with up to 30 years in the business. We have successful store owners willing to help fellow members with all aspects of store operations. Our regional and national events are held to educate and to foster networking with experts.
Mentor Program – Our mentoring program is a valuable tool for the success of the membership. AMPC maintains a list of mentors and their specific areas of expertise. When you call with a question about something specific, like how to get started in the print business or with freight, we'll offer you the phone numbers of several mentors who are experts in that particular area. Being able to talk to three or four people is invaluable. There is nothing better than getting guidance and ideas from successful people who are doing everyday what you want to be doing. Throughout the AMPC National Convention experts roam the event as walking encyclopedias of success.
Expert Help
When You Need It
The legacy of AMPC is one of reliable and accurate support of its membership. This business is not always easy and can get complicated. AMPC stands ready to be on your side with support and experience when you need information strategies, and empowerment. With 27 years of membership support and an industry of willing contributors, you will get the answers you need.
AMPC HotTalk Industry Discussion Forum — Immediate access to hundreds of seasoned veterans of the industry who own successful stores for informed answers and solutions. Ask any question here and you will get knowledgeable answers.
MPC Today Monthly Magazine — In print and digital formats, a content-rich periodical that delivers the latest news, ideas, products and services, MPC Today contains professionally written topic-specific features that guide you through tough issues and strategies that puts you ahead of the competition. The theme-oriented issues thoroughly examine all the aspects of issues, marketing strategies, profit centers, and more.
Toll-Free hotline — A person answers the phone with the most extensive access to information in the industry. The office staff is trained at the AMPC Store, an actual operation mail and parcel center, to experience the same daily issues you experience. With that hand-on experience, access to thousands of store owners throughout the country, and direct line access to carriers and other vendors, your requests will be thoroughly researched.
Regional and National Events — AMPC hosts a National Convention / Expo every year to bring the members and the vendors together for five days of networking, training, education and a time to meet with the vendors that help AMPC develop profit-making programs. Smaller regional events around the country are held to bring the RSi education to the stores.
Store Locator — A full featured locator with maps and service search. Your store's can be found based upon a search for a particular service in a particular region.
Vendor Relations — dedicated staff member who can focus in on the responsible person for your particular concern or request from a vendor.
Advocacy — with a growing membership the strength to advocate on the member's behalf becomes more influential. AMPC has taken the memberships causes on to the highest levels of responsibility in some of the country's largest organizations. We have your back when it comes to fairness and honesty.
A Current & Relevant Education.
A quality education must be current and relevant to deliver value to the business, its customers and its employees. With the store owner in mind, AMPC established an institution of higher learning to create a structured format to provide a method of informed success. A trial and error, mistake oriented process to an education is expensive and dangerous. AMPC sought to eliminate that by founding the Retail Shipping Institute.
RSi — Retail Shipping Institute is a division of AMPC with a Board of Trustees appointed by the Board of Directors to oversee the education of AMPC members and the curriculum of RSi. Classes are held at events and at our campus in Rockford, Illinois. Most popular are the FasTrac class for new store owners and the SuccessTrac program for experienced owners.
Classes consist of Certified Core MPC Skills Classes which are required and a comprehensive offering of Elective Classes. Each class is assigned credit hours that count toward a Masters in Retail Shipping Management degree.
Master of Retail Shipping Management Degree Program
Associated Mail & Parcel Center's Retail Shippers Institute (RSi®) education offerings are designed to deliver on our mission to maximize the success of our members through a disciplined study program that leads to a recognized degree in the mail and parcel industry. These classes are designed to help mail and parcel centers be more profitable and to inspire leadership and achievement within the retail shipping community. We promise to deliver exceptional education experiences and essential tools that will provide opportunities for your success.
The degree on the wall of your store elicits trust from your customers and represents the work, sacrifice, and treasure you willing gave to become professional and recognized.
Charmaine M. Fennie Scholarship
The Charmaine M. Fennie Memorial Scholarship Fund was established in 2003 in memory of the owner and president of Associated Mail and Parcel Centers, Inc. Mrs. Fennie was an accomplished business leader, musician and writer. Her leadership of the national trade association for the Mail and Parcel industry spanned a decade and provided a legacy of industry improvements and innovations. Her ability to effectively communicate and interject humor in all aspects of the human condition have forever endeared her in the hearts of thousands of independent retail shipping center operators across the country. Her memory and our appreciations for her contributions are aptly served through this scholarship program and its investment in future generations.
AMPC members, their employees and dependents can apply for scholarship funds to be applied towards the recipient's pursuit of a higher education.
Programs & Vendors
The AMPC programs are partnerships established with quality vendors who specialize in the mail and parcel business to provide a means to operate your business. Some vendors offer exclusive discounts to AMPC members alone. Some programs bundle many vendors together to set up a cost saving, competitive profit center. Other vendors have joined with AMPC to help with training and education. AMPC is constantly searching and evaluating vendors to bring you choices and opportunities.
Carrier and Shipping Programs
- FedEx — FedEx Authorized Ship Center Program
- UPS — Authorized Shipping Outlet
- USPS — Approved Shippers Program
- Discounted postal rates
- AMPC Freight — Low freight rates and freight shipping support
- Exclusive discounts in postage meter service
- Freight shippers referral program
- Third party parcel insurance — up to 90% off of carrier rates
- Exclusive specials on easy and automatic refunds for carrier service delays
AMPC Creative Suite — Printing, Copying, Finishing
- Low cost graphic design service
- AMPC Mailing Lists — discounted mailing lists for clients or store promotion
- Low cost non-royalty photos and images
- Discounted laminating and binding machines and supplies
- Exclusive AMPC discounts and copiers, printers, leasing, and materials
- Printers discount on paper and supplies
- Exclusive AMPC discount on professional designed graphic layouts
- Kiosks for printing photos and passports
- Exclusive AMPC member discounts on poster/banner printing kiosk
Packaging
- Exclusive AMPC member discounts on automated packaging machinery
- AMPC member discounts on decorative mailers
- Custom box making software
- Back room packaging supplies
- Foam packaging systems
- Packaging supplies, tools, and machinery for the industry
Retail
- AMPC discount specials on greeting cards
- Gift Cards — free Display, gift cards, and gift card activator
- Passport cameras, photo cutters, passport folders and laminators
- Specials on rubber stamp making machine and supplies
- AMPC member exclusive discounts on children's personalized music maker
- Fingerprint scanning service
- Inkjet refilling systems
- Impulse and gift items
- Keys and key making equipment
- Cash for ink and toner recycle program
- Exclusive AMPC discounts on POS and Shipping hardware and software
- National Notary Association — Free membership through AMPC with the material purchase
- AMPC special pricing on shredding equipment
Business Services
- AMPC Insurance — AMPC Member discounts on business, home, auto, health insurance
- Free check recovery program
- Exclusive AMPC low merchant rates for credit card processing
- Sell your store program
- AMPC specials and discounts on box holder's mail notification software
- Special AMPC rates on business coaching for the MPC industry
- Franchising systems
Marketing
- Marketing promotional specialties — discounted enrollment
- Exclusive AMPC member discounts on enhanced email marketing program
- NPC Marketing Materials
Your information at your customer fingertips.
All members of AMPC at all levels receive a free web page for their store.
Getting your information in front of customer is number one. AMPC delivers top-quality websites for absolutely no-charge. To succeed in today's marketplace, you need a presence on the Internet with at the very least, a web page.
We Have Features. AMPC Website are packed full of everything you need, and nothing you don't. AMPC Websites are developed from the ground up with search-engine-optimization in mind. Your site will appear higher in Google and Bing search results than that competition. AMPC sites are optimized to load quickly on all internet connections, including dial-up modems and satellite connections.
We approached the design of the free store pages with the consumer in mind, not the store owner. Many web designers strive to please the client and leave the real user out of the planning. We know that your professionalism, skills, and expertise are worth touting, but let’s get the customer into your store first.
There is some room on the AMPC store pages for details, and additional pages may be added later, but the concentration now is on the purpose – you need customers and you need them now.
We have designed the AMPC Free web page to be a quick reference easily seen and understood. The consumer who is in the market for your store services searched for you, found you on the Internet, and now wants to find you on the street corner. And all of this is placed above the fold where 100% of the page viewers will see it, not hidden behind information that the consumer is not interested in.
A couple examples:
Finding the Right Information
Having the right information readily available at all times in a number of media allows you to get access to that data no matter where you are, no matter what the conditions are. Support allows you to ask AMPC and our members, these Resources help you get the information make the informed, competitive decisions.
Packipedia — the MPC Knowledge Base — A constantly updated encyclopedia of mail and parcel resources. This constantly expanding and renewing encyclopedia is a simple look-it-up source for just about every topic in this industry with links and references to more detailed information.
HIPDR Program — Keeping Hazardous, Illegal, Prohibited, Dangerous, and Restricted items from getting into the shipping system through your business. How to explain to you customer about the dangers and illegality of some items they want to ship.
MPC Today — online and in print — a monthly magazine with fresh, current, content-rich articles written in casual language to help you succeed written by those who already have succeeded.
AMPC.org — the gateway to all the resources AMPC has developed. Plus, information on events, news briefs, store locator, detailed program sign-up information, and more are here on the AMPC web site.
HotTalk Online — get immediate access to hundreds of your peers for answers and information — the definitive forum for the retail shipping, mail and parcel industry — unmatched in expertise and relevancy.
News
Digital Newsletter – weekly updates and news that you need now – timely and relevant – sent as an email.
MPC Today – online and in print – a monthly magazine with fresh current articles writing to help you succeed by those who already have succeeded. Delivering the latest news, ideas, products and services. MPC Today provides you with critical vendor information to properly outfit and supply your business. Topic-specific articles by experts help answer the tough questions and guide you through the daunting maze of information you receive every day.
Vendor Spotlight – a monthly release showing how a particular vendor can help your business.
Service and Delay Updates – we monitor the carrier websites daily to report delays due to weather, disasters, and other events.
AMPC.org – upcoming events, article reprints, program details and how to sign up to get discounts. In the Members-Only section of our website, you'll find a comprehensive, resource-packed cache of information.
HotTalk Online - get immediate access to hundreds of your peers for answers and information – not to mention a place to simply share stories with others who understand.
Neighborhood Postal Centers
Neighborhood Postal Centers® (NPC) was created to provide a brand name where independent mail and parcel centers could have a common identity with the consumer public. NPC is a co-brand allowing you to maintain your independent status while taking advantage of a recognizable common national brand. NPC gives you the brand strength equivalent to that of a retail chain.
Through the NPC license agreement, participating stores are eligible to use the trademarked Neighborhood Postal Centers® logo, slogans, signage and other promotional materials.
Complimentary Listing on the Neighborhood Postal Centers® Website — NPC licensees can be found at neighborhoodpostal.com — including a store locator and information guide for consumers. Customers in need of a mail and parcel center use this site to find the store nearest them and to learn about the products and services offered, hours of operation, directions, phone numbers, etc.
Plastic Loosefill Council (aka “Peanut Hotline”) — NPC stores enjoy free enrollment (a $30 value) in the Plastic Loosefill Council. Consumers can call the Hotline or visit the website for the nearest location that accepts packing peanuts for reuse. Major mail-order retailers, like Macy's, enclose the Peanut Hotline phone number in their shipments.
Online Advertising Templates — On our NPC Members-only website, a variety of professionally-designed advertising slicks and templates are provided. These can be used to promote your store and the NPC network.
Online Press Release Templates — Also on our NPC Members-only website, you can find a variety of PR templates appropriate for promoting your store and the NPC network.
NPC Online Marketing manual — Professionally-designed editable marketing materials free online: posters, brochures, ads, and postcards you can customize for your business.
NPC Logo Products — NPC stores have the opportunity to purchase NPC logo products such as a lighted store sign, logo shirts, logo pens, etc. These products are designed to help you project your professional image to your customer while reinforcing the NPC national brand.
Membership Requirements — You must be a current AMPC member; offer packaging and shipping as your core business; own a store that maintains professional standards and practices; and, not be a carrier-franchised store.
