Has anyone used Stackry or other such US forwarding services? They take parcels from Amazon US and other US stores then mail them onto the UK. They are based in NH, so no sales tax. Grateful to know if they are reliable etc

thank you

[1] I've never heard of Stackry, [2] I'm not sure why anyone resident in the US would need such a service, or even be aware of it. ..... You might do better asking in the "Moving back to the UK" forum.

That said, I suspect that much of the "forwarding" business is going to countries in Africa, Latin America, eastern Europe, and other such places, where there is a poor choice of consumer products. There have been such export businesses in Florida, shipping to the Caribbean, and California, shipping to Asia and Oceania, for decades.

These kinds of company do a lot of business to Canada as well, a lot of US retailers wont ship to Canada, and we lack the selection US has.

But anyhow they seem to have good reviews overall on Canadian forums. I never used a forwarding service myself as I had always lived within 20 minutes of the border so would ship to a package place along the border and go pick up myself, pre-COVID those places were printing money, now not so much.

You would be surprised there are a bunch of these companies like shop2ship myUS Usgobuy etc etc forwarding to the UK stuff from US retailers that wont ship directly and Americans use them to as they ship to the sales tax free place initially and then these guys mail them onto you wherever you are in the US so could be worth it for large value items like phones, laptops etc

Am curious what were these places along the border? Were they mailboxes or physical houses?

Because Canadians drive over the border to collect things that they cannot have mailed to their home address in Canada and/or to avoid import duty and/or excessive shipping costs ; or at least they did prior to March 2020.

Approximately 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border, so collecting their stuff is not more than a half day trip.

Are they mailboxes or official businesses that operate as pick up points as a side hustle? Just curious I never heard such a thing

Most are dedicated business doing nothing but specializing in accepting parcels for Canadian's and other shipping needs some are located within a business like a gas station as a side hustle.

They charge a per package fee, usually $2-$4 so it's pay as you go, some people do rent official USPS post office boxes.



Some are automated where you punch in a code they email you, and the locker opens like this




Some are more old school like this, where a human goes and retrieves you parcel for you.

Wot 'e said! ^