In the summertime, most of Dean’s Sweets’ business comes from walk-in customers. But when the holiday season rolls around, it’ll be a whole different story for the chocolatier.

“We must do 50, 60 packages a day in November and December,” owner Dean Bingham said Tuesday. “This time of year, we have one Ikea bag, which has three or four boxes in it.”

While that handful of summer orders was destined for delivery across Maine and New Hampshire, Bingham said orders in the winter often come from both coasts and as far south as Florida. Dean’s charges customers a flat fee depending on distance and package weight, calculated with an in-house formula that accounts for temperature along the route and the amount of insulation required.

“The main key is to not end up spending more than what we’re charging people for shipping,” Bingham said. The margins are thin.

But a new set of holiday-season surcharges from the U.S. Postal Service could make those margins even tighter for Bingham and other Maine retailers, and they could also cost gift-givers extra at the post office. The added fees come as businesses are already feeling the crunch of tariffs and continued inflation.

The Postal Service’s board of governors approved the 2025 temporary holiday fees last week, sending them to an independent oversight body for legal review — essentially a formality. The rates are likely to take effect Oct. 5 and last through Jan. 18, 2026. They would apply to four of the most popular shipping options, including priority mail.

The fees are intended to cover extra handling costs, including labor, during the post office’s busiest season. Private shipping company FedEx announced its own holiday surcharges last month; UPS, meanwhile, has not announced surcharges for 2025 but did tack on additional holiday fees last year, according to Supply Chain Dive.

The specific charges vary based on weight, distance, the type of shipment and whether the sender is a retail or commercial customer.

The fees will be slightly higher for consumers — including people sending holiday gifts — than for commercial businesses. For a 5-pound priority mail package shipped from Portland, it will cost 60 cents more to send it to most locations in New England, New York and Connecticut, according to a Press Herald analysis. For anything farther, the charge more than doubles, to $1.45.

At Portland’s Forest Avenue post office on Monday afternoon, Belle Hilmer stuffed an armful of packages into a drop box and frowned when a reporter explained the holiday charges.

Hilmer, who owns Portland-based Maine Leather Co., ships handmade goods across the country. Though she makes some small products, like wallets and clutches, most of what she sells ends up in larger boxes.

“I make a lot of tote bags, which would be in a big box,” she said. “You can’t really make your stuff weigh less.”

Hilmer said she typically opts for ground advantage shipping. Holiday surcharges for that service would range from 30 cents to $6.50, depending on time and distance.

“I guess I’ll have to figure that out,” she said.

SHIPPING AROUND

David Vigue, co-owner of Paine Products in Auburn, said he usually compares rates from all the major shipping companies, including the Postal Service, to find the lowest cost.

“I bounce back and forth,” Vigue said. He called the surcharges unsurprising, since Postal Service rates “are lower than they really should be, compared to other places.”

The holiday season is big for Vigue’s company, which manufactures incense, scented oils and other balsam fir goods. Vigue estimated that his shipping volume increases by at least a third in the fall and winter.

But Vigue said he’s not worried about the new costs’ impact on his bottom line, since his customers pay for shipping directly. And while the higher fees for heavier shipments could make some potential customers hesitate, Vigue does not expect increases of $2 or less to dissuade most of his buyers.

Still, Curtis Picard, president of the Retail Association of Maine, said the new rates will likely impact small and medium businesses, which often cross-reference carriers to find the lowest shipping rate, like Vigue does.

Picard also noted that the new shipping fees come as Maine’s businesses already face a series of new pressures, most notably a constantly changing set of tariffs and rising insurance premiums, both of which have strained businesses without bringing new revenue streams.

“There’s certainly a lot of things to keep you up at night,” Picard said.

Hilary Sinauer, owner of Blanche and Mimi in the Old Port, said she heard about the new charges but “just half-ignored that, because (the pressure) just comes from every angle.”

President Donald Trump’s stiff tariffs are a much greater source of worry for Sinauer. On a quilt imported from India, for example, the tax can be as high as 50%.

“Shipping to us is the concern, because then the product has to be more,” she said. “So then it’s twofold.”

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Even without the new charges, Maine’s geography — nestled in the country’s northeast corner — means shipping costs already tend to be on the higher side, Picard said.

“It certainly costs Mainers more to ship something to California than it does for someone in Colorado,” Picard said. “If you’re a Maine business and you have mostly Maine customers, the impact isn’t going to be that strong.”

The new surcharges would only exacerbate that difference.

The commercial fees are slightly lower than those proposed for consumers, but business owners said they’ll still add up, especially during the holiday rush.

For commercial shippers, a 5-pound priority mail package would cost an extra 45 cents to deliver across most of New England and New York. Beyond there, the charge nearly triples to $1.25. The costs increase for heavier parcels. A detailed breakdown of the proposed charges can be found on the Postal Service’s website.

It’s not clear how much additional revenue the Postal Service expects to take in from the temporary fees.

Stephen Doherty, a Postal Service spokesperson, declined to answer questions about how much demand usually increases between October and January, what proportion of packages coming from Maine would be impacted, or how far a typical shipment from Maine travels. He said in an email Tuesday that information is “proprietary and cannot be disclosed.”

While some Mainers say they are happy to eat the cost if it means the mail will travel smoothly, others said the surcharges come during an already difficult financial time.

“I think it’s really bad,” Augustine Muke said Tuesday as she walked into a Lewiston post office. “Everything in the economy is going up, except pay.”

Speaking from a restaurant near Augusta’s downtown post office, Vincent Aliquo said he usually sends 10-12 packages during the holiday season, though it fluctuates year to year.

“It does kind of rack up,” Aliquo said.

Still, Aliquo feels comfortable with the cost increases, which he says make sense in light of the Postal Service’s financial issues.

“I want my packages to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. I know that they’re underfunded and understaffed,” he said. “Whatever ensures that it gets there in time, I’m perfectly happy with that.”