Hilton Head’s only full-service FedEx center is closed. Now, the closest is an hour away

Mary Dimitrov
·2 min read

Hilton Head’s only FedEx Ship Center permanently closed in March after months of reduced hours and staff shortages, forcing residents to go to Savannah for the nearest full-service FedEx and complicating operations for small business owners.

The store, which had been located on Hunter Road, closed on March 11, according to FedEx spokesperson Adam Snyder, who didn’t provide a specific reason for the closing. A sign on the building said it was closed as of March 8.

Business owners who used the shipping center reported dwindling hours and signs about staff shortages leading up to the store’s closing.

Hilton Head persistently struggles with affordable housing for the area’s workforce, and it’s not uncommon for Hilton Head business owners to have problems finding staff on the island, especially for service industry jobs.

The impact is often felt by tourists, with long wait times at restaurants or reduced retail shop hours, but the FedEx Ship Center closing hits business owners such as home inspector Ken Marchi particularly hard.

“All these people, small business people, who use FedEx would be waiting in the parking lot,” Marchi said of FedEx when the store reduced its hours before closing. He said the hours gradually dwindled over the past few years, and the store operated from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in its last months.

Marchi has lived on Hilton Head for 20 years and express ships around three environmental samples to a lab for testing each week. He said the work is time sensitive, and each test is worth about $2,500 in income to him.

“It’s just been extremely frustrating,” he said. “I am a small business. There’s other (small businesses). And I don’t know what they’re doing. They’re just pulling their hair out.”

A lone FedEx truck sits at the Hunter Road facility where a sign on the door of the FedEx Shipping Center notes the facility was permanently closed on March 8, 2024, on Hilton Head Island. The nearest FedEx Express facilities are in Savannah.
A lone FedEx truck sits at the Hunter Road facility where a sign on the door of the FedEx Shipping Center notes the facility was permanently closed on March 8, 2024, on Hilton Head Island. The nearest FedEx Express facilities are in Savannah.

Signage on the store’s door offered Island Pack and Ship Center, an authorized FedEx Ship Center, as an alternative. However, that center and other FedEx Drop Boxes don’t service:

  • QR codes to print labels

  • Shipments using a FedEx account

  • Write-in paper air bills

The nearest FedEx Express facilities for Hilton Head Island residents are over an hour drive away in Savannah. FedEx will deliver printing supplies upon request to customers with accounts, like Marchi, who said he needs to stick with FedEx because of their tracking capabilities.

“If you don’t have the time and the intuitiveness to keep chasing them down, they are impossible,” he said.

A lone FedEx truck sits at the Hunter Road facility where a sign on the door of the FedEx Shipping Center notes the facility was permanently closed on March 8, 2024, on Hilton Head Island. The nearest FedEx Express facilities are in Savannah.
A lone FedEx truck sits at the Hunter Road facility where a sign on the door of the FedEx Shipping Center notes the facility was permanently closed on March 8, 2024, on Hilton Head Island. The nearest FedEx Express facilities are in Savannah.