Shipping Zone, located in the strip mall next to Safeway in Kenai, held a ribbon-cutting Saturday for an expanded offering of post office boxes.

Monica Flores, whose title at the Shipping Zone is “shop queen,” said she and the store’s owner identified a lack of P.O. boxes as a need because their selection remained consistently full.

She said that in contrast to P.O. boxes run by the United States Postal Service, they offer shorter-length rentals able to serve summertime visitors or those traveling for work. Because they have a physical location, they can also receive shipments from FedEx or UPS.

The Shipping Zone is working to pack an increasing number of services into their space, Flores said. They do printing and laminating, they sell some local crafts, they have a freezer for shipping fish, they can serve as notaries, and they host a couple hundred P.O. boxes.

On Saturday, as part of the ribbon-cutting, there were cookies and other snacks, and visitors could take a key and open one of the new boxes to find an Easter egg inside. Flores and her daughter Caia Bock together took a pair of scissors and cut the ribbon from the front of the display around 11 a.m.

For more information about Shipping Zone, visit shippingzone.org.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.