I don’t really hate the post office. However, I do find that it typically provides a subset of the population which I would typically prefer not to deal with. The bleak reality that comes along with federal outposts and those who rely on them. Americans in their most unsanitized form being prodded along by civil servants without personality. No, thank you.
Lucky for me I couldn’t even begin to say when the last time I went to a post office was. In fact, that particular office has long since been torn down, and it did not disrupt my daily affairs one bit. So I was bit surprised the Star-Telegram said that “residents” would be inconvenienced by local post office closures. Heaven forbid we be inconvenienced.
And inconvenienced for what exactly? A Postal Office Box that can be acquired at any Pack-N-Mail that is most likely closer to your house? Or inconvenienced for shipping capabilities? Which are clearly handled better by Fed-Ex and UPS (they are still solvent).
I say cut post offices. Have strategically placed regional sorting and delivery facilities, but cut the smaller branch offices. We don’t need them, and clearly they are not justifying themselves. We could do better with stand alone drop off boxes and automated stamp machines. In the mean time I will go to paperless billing, promote the use of Evites, and cheer the loss of bulk spam in my mailbox.
August 26th, 2009 at
For international shipping no one is cheaper than USPS parcel post. Also, the post office is the default location for government services simply because of their large number of locations. Folks use them for passport applications, for example. I’m sure there are more things they do for those who require government services, I just don’t qualify for or receive much from Uncle Sam.
Sure, most of those things can and eventually will move online, but there are still some folks from previous generations that need the hands-on experience.