US Post Office no longer delivering on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Bingo.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

If it went away altogether, I would hardly be devastated.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

I think small, isolated towns would have difficulty without the Post Office, at least for now. Utility bills and such. New York City would be fine without the USPS. Bumblebuzz, Montana, not so much.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Do you know how many post offices there are in this country?
In W.Va alone we have thousands. Many are just a few miles part and remain the only part of an area that could have once been called a town. It they closed a third of the offices in this state, I'll wager you could still drive less than 20 miles to an office.

And remember ... carriers still deliver mail, receive and sell stamps.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

The debt USPS has racked up because Congress is dragging its feet on:

-- Allowing Post Office closures. Every time it's proposed, it gets hammered by committee.

-- The aforementioned, dumbass pension rules. If you didn't know better, you'd think the GOP-led Congress passed it so the USPS union could be busted and the Postal Service go under.

-- Congress drags its feet on approving postal price increases. Related to that, USPS can only increase its price so much each year, thanks to legislation passed by the so-called small government types.

Mail service is a public good, like roads. In many parts of this country, commerce would be DOA without regular mail delivery.

What about letting Saturday delivery continue if, say, your household will pay an extra XX dollars a year for it? Set the price at whatever

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

And the minute the PO goes away, watch their rates creep up. There are millions and millions of rural Americans who would get screwed royally because there is no way UPS or Fed Ex is going to deliver a package to some place in BFE for the same price is does now once the PO, which right now provides an affordable alternative, goes away. UPS will not have a store in Gordon, Neb., or Centennial, Wyo, or Ceres, NY or the millions of other places with Post Offices that are lifelines to the rest of the country.

I'm with the Gee-man on this. The Post Office provides a service that is vital to hundreds of millions of Americans and should not be expected to make money, any more than the Department of Defense or other essential government services that run at a "deficit." And the PO works better than almost any other government operation. It's certainly hundreds times more efficient than the DOD, which gets a blank check to spend gazillions on shit we won't ever need so we can kill people 50 times over.

Everybody doesn't pay their bills online. Everybody doesn't live in a big city. Fed Ex, UPS, etc., don't deliver first-class mail, or magazines, or newspapers, or catalogues, etc. They don't provide secure dropoff points for things you wish to mail.

And if nobody uses the Post Office, or if there is no need for it, then why are the lines always so long? Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded, right?

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

They did great every time there was a sale on sheets.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Maybe everybody should.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

In the small town where I grew up, most utility bills could be paid by simply driving 5 minutes to the actual company.

Water bill: Town offices
Gas/electric: At the company office, or weirdly enough, at the Ace Hardware store in town.
Internet/TV/phone: At the company office.
Cell phone: At the Sprint or Verizon store or whatever.

Obviously, not all towns are like that, especially the really small BFE towns.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Yeah, that's what my dad did. He was surprised that I mailed my water payment to the town. Just habit, I guess.

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

Exactly the problem. The awful, terrible, wasteful Post Office will also deliver to every address in the country. In private hands, what would be the motivation to service unprofitable routes?

 

Re: US Post Office closing on Saturdays ... does it affect you?

We're also forgetting that broadband Internet service probably remains spotty in places like BFE, Montana, which is absolutely desolate. I know someone in very rural Pennsylvania who didn't have access to DSL or broadband. In 2011.