U.S. Postal Service Will End Saturday Mail? (This Week?) Amid $6 Billion Loss
A Saturday Without Mail?
It may make the weekend seem a bit more carefree knowing that bills will not be arriving in the mail on Saturday. Also, for people who go away a lot on the weekend it will eliminate having to worry about the mail sitting outside until they get home.
Getting rid of Saturday mail delivery will save the postal service some money. It might even give the hard working mail delivery people some precious weekend time off. Or it could cause more postal staff to lose jobs. About 100,000 postal jobs have already been eliminated.
Closing Post Offices
But will changes hurt the postal service or help it? The U.S. Postal Service also wants to close unprofitable branches of the Post Office. That will upset people who use those local Post Offices. I like being able to walk to my local Post Office. It would upset me if that location was closed.
Has the U.S. Postal Service Alienated the Public?
The postal service has to try to regain profits without alienating the public. For an upset public will eschew the postal service as much as possible.
Most people use e-mail much more than snail mail now. But with all the cases of hacking in the news people may gradually switch back to old fashioned mail. There is something very special about receiving a real letter in the mail.
The Joy of "Forever" Stamps
The postal service was denied a two-cent increase to the cost of a stamp. This means they have to try harder to find other ways to increase revenue. It seems now would be a good time to stock up on "Forever" stamps. They are good to use forever, no matter how high the cost of a stamp goes. Who knows how long the postal service will continue to sell the special "Forever" stamps?
I like to collect stamps. It is fun to look back and see how quickly the prices of stamps have increased. To me a stamp is a little piece of American history.
Give Stamps as Gifts
As the holiday season approaches, it is a fun time to get stamps to give out as gifts. Some Post Offices have a wider variety of stamps than others. So browse the different branches in your local area to find the widest variety of stamps.
It would be a cute gift to give a college student enough "Forever" stamps to get him/ her through all the letter writing of the college years. Or you could put together a book of stamps to document the year a baby was born.
I have framed some old envelopes from letters my Mom received when she was young. I consider one of them among my favorite family heirlooms. It is fun to see the old postmark and stamp. The postal service is part of all of our lives. It is funny how something as simple as a stamp can show details about life in a time long past.
Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/01/AR2010100106092.html?hpid=topnews
Published by Julia Bodeeb
Winner, Pulitzer Center Global Issues contest (Washington, DC), semi-finalist: The Nation's poetry contest. Published in newspapers, magazines and many online websites. Sold jokes to a major comic. Over a... View profile
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16 Comments
Post a CommentBrilliant. What about people who have to work during the week and have only Saturdays to mail things that require going in? It was bad enough just having one day to accomplish that. Maybe they should close down on Mondays?
I get so little snail-mail that I don't think it will matter to me.
Thanks Julia!
The Post Office could raise revenue other ways. And yes, the regular carrier would work harder and burn out quicker because of five day delivery.
I think Saturday is a big mail day. I heard a while back (maybe a year ago?) that they might stop delivering on Tuesdays because it is typically the slowest mail day of the week. That would make sense, but I think the postal carriers would rather have a Saturday off than a Tuesday.
I don't think they should eliminate Saturday delivery. I do think, though, that the US Post Office has already alienated a lot of their customers, who perceive it as being unreliable and slow.
The US Post Office provides a great service. For small things they are as fast and cheaper than UPS or FedEx. I love their flat rate boxes. I wouldn't mind giving up Saturday delivery if necessary.
I don't mind if they cancel saturdays mail. But, I also don't want anyone to loose their job as a result of it.
I love getting mail, regular mail in my mail box. I pay bills by check,the old fashioned way. I look forward to the daily mail delivery. It's one less day to receive 'good stuff'.
I think we should do away with the USPS altogether. when the heck was the last time anyone sent anything that's not UPS or FedEx?