Source: [url]http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/26/news/economy/post_office_closings/index.htm?cnn=yes&hpt=hp_t2[/url]
[quote]
Your little post office could be slated to close as the U.S. Postal Service tries to find ways to cut red ink.Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe released a long-awaited "post office study" of nearly 3,700 potential closings in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
"The Postal Service of the future will be smaller, leaner and more competitive and it will continue to drive commerce, serve communities and deliver value," Donahoe said.
Donahoe said that this and other moves, such as a proposal under consideration to reduce service to five days a week, are necessary to close a $20 billion gap in revenue by 2015.
The closings announcement came as no surprise, since the service announced plans last January to shut down thousands of stations and branches as part of an effort to stem steep losses.
In fiscal year 2010, the Postal Service suffered a $8.5 billion net loss, compared to a loss of $3.8 billion the prior year. Last quarter, the U.S. Postal Service posted a loss of $2.2 billion. Its fiscal year ends in September.
Most of the post offices being studied for closure have so little foot traffic that workers average less than two hours of work per day and average sales are less than $50 a day, according to the Postal Service. The closings are expected to begin within the next four to six months, with the first closing by January.
Donahoe estimated that the savings from the closings could be as much as $200 million.
The closings could cost the jobs of about 3,000 postmasters, 500 supervisors and another 500 to 1,000 clerks, said Dean Granholm, vice president of delivery and post office operations. The Postal Service has about 574,000 employees.
The list released Tuesday has 3,653 facilities named:
-- Some 3,061 post offices with less than $27,500 in annual revenue, or 2 hours of workload daily
-- 385 post offices with less than $600,000 in annual revenue, and 5 or more postal service locations, such as stamp kiosks, within two miles.
-- 188 post offices with less than $1 million in annual revenue, and 5 or more postal service locations within 0.5 mile.
-- 19 offices currently suspended.
To fill the gap, more than 2,500 so-called "village post offices" may be created in grocery and convenience stores in the next year, with the first round to be announced this fall, Granholm said.
A presentation showed a rendering of a small grocery storefront, combined with signage suggesting the building is also a "Village Post Office," complete with signs featuring the stylized logo of the Postal Service.
Donahoe said the village post office concept could help small businesses across the country.
"Many of these general stores are hanging on for dear life out there," Donahoe said. "They can take the money we give them to pay the rent and pay the light bill. We think it's a real win-win proposal."
It'll be up to the village postal office contractors to hire someone to staff post office sales. The village post offices won't be able to provide many services, including expedited mail, certified mail or shipping of odd-sized boxes
Post office closings have upset some community leaders who say it could hurt their town's identity and make it difficult for the elderly to collect their mail and send letters.
Some post offices, such as one in Laneview, Va., have already been notified they were under review and have held meetings to prepare to challenge any decision to close.
"This post office is small, and from me working here the past two years, I was pretty sure that this post office would be on the list," said Laneview manager Cynthia Reed-Fisher.
Dozens of residents attended a meeting at a church to tell the Postal Service why their location should be spared.
Donahoe and other postal officials have told CNN the downsizing will try to preserve local town identities by maintaining their names and zip codes, and continuing to deliver that mail through other nearby facilities.[/quote]
tl;dr, people use email now.
[quote]-- Some 3,061 post offices with less than $27,500 in annual revenue, or 2 hours of workload daily[/quote]
So mainly post offices that are useless
I'm okay with this
[QUOTE=faze;31349969]tl;dr, people use email now.[/QUOTE]
As we found in the UK, the small post offices are the ones that serve rural and village areas, who don't/can't use the Internet much. So you might be swapping one issue for another.
[QUOTE=MrEndangered;31350032]As we found in the UK, the small post offices are the ones that serve rural and village areas, who don't/can't use the Internet much. So you might be swapping one issue for another.[/QUOTE]
To be fair, even villages with like 12 people have FiOs here, so we don't need post offices at all.
[QUOTE=Miskav;31350211]To be fair, even villages with like 12 people have FiOs here, so we don't need post offices at all.[/QUOTE]Just because one village has Fios doesn't mean every other village has Fios.
[QUOTE=MrEndangered;31350032]As we found in the UK, the small post offices are the ones that serve rural and village areas, who don't/can't use the Internet much. [b]So you might be swapping one issue for another[/b].[/QUOTE]
The other being that this is costing a lot of jobs and will probably have an economic impact on the communities which these post offices serve.
eventually its just going to be open only during holidays and maybe once a month (birthdays and whatnot)
[QUOTE=Miskav;31350211]To be fair, even villages with like 12 people have FiOs here, so we don't need post offices at all.[/QUOTE]
Many people in the US don't have that luxury.
This is the he worst case of "why didn't you put the country in the thread title" I've ever seen
[QUOTE=smurfy;31350623]This is the he worst case of "why didn't you put the country in the thread title" I've ever seen[/QUOTE]
Its in the first sentence of the news article.
[quote]Your little post office could be slated to close as the [b]U.S. Postal Service[/b] tries to find ways to cut red ink.[/quote]
[QUOTE=Cmx;31350704]Its in the first sentence of the news article.[/QUOTE]
It should be in the title.
[QUOTE=smurfy;31351108]It should be in the title.[/QUOTE]
The man's right. Fuck, I think I proposed a forum rule about this last year.
He's in the UK, he doesn't care about USPS going under. The fact that the two letters "US" aren't in the title makes him worried that it's [b]him[/b] that's affected. When he opens the article and it's US stuff, he's immediately both relieved that it's not him, and pissed off that he had to open the article to check.
[QUOTE=lavacano;31351262]The man's right. Fuck, I think I proposed a forum rule about this last year.
He's in the UK, he doesn't care about USPS going under. The fact that the two letters "US" aren't in the title makes him worried that it's [b]him[/b] that's affected. When he opens the article and it's US stuff, he's immediately both relieved that it's not him, and pissed off that he had to open the article to check.[/QUOTE]It's honestly not that difficult to open the thread and read the first couple lines of the article.
[QUOTE=faze;31351345]It's honestly not that difficult to open the thread and read the first couple lines of the article.[/QUOTE]
And it's not that difficult to put the country name in. We're at an impasse.
[QUOTE=lavacano;31351604]And it's not that difficult to put the country name in. We're at an impasse.[/QUOTE]
So you're going to complain about the few seconds you wasted reading one line of text
But you're going to spend even more time continuing the argument in this thread
You guys realize most post offices are used primarily for package shipping and receiving right? I sure as hell can't email a statue of Tony Danza to that ebay buyer now can I?
That would be the main issue of losing a post office in your town.
[QUOTE=SwissArmyKnife;31352453]You guys realize most post offices are used primarily for package shipping and receiving right? I sure as hell can't email a statue of Tony Danza to that ebay buyer now can I?
That would be the main issue of losing a post office in your town.[/QUOTE]
I was about to say something like this. I can't really email physical objects until the teleporter is invented.
The one in my city is probably going to close, since no one actually uses it, which is a shame, because it's an awesome building.
[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3413/3410236453_2280d36e45.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2481/3790177655_2afc12f534.jpg[/IMG]
Well what about products? You can't deliver purchases via the internet. Sounds like this is just going to make deliveries more lengthy for a lot of people.
[QUOTE=Renin V3;31353244]Well what about products? You can't deliver purchases via the internet. Sounds like this is just going to make deliveries more lengthy for a lot of people.[/QUOTE]
There's still UPS, FedEx, etc for that.
[QUOTE=Renin V3;31353244]Well what about products? You can't deliver purchases via the internet. Sounds like this is just going to make deliveries more lengthy for a lot of people.[/QUOTE]
It's going to get better as the big companies drop mail for dedicated package delivery.
[QUOTE=jeimizu;31353510]There's still UPS, FedEx, etc for that.[/QUOTE]They charge out the ass to ship stuff.
I'll make sure to use boxes filled with sand with individual letters to contact people instead of texting.
I love my post offices, and loved recieveing letters as a kid. And "inb4" that one image of the person being happy to receive e-mail then the after of being happy to receive mail.
Good, now lets close Amtrak.
[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;31354807]Good, now lets close Amtrak.[/QUOTE]Why? That's a stupid idea.
[QUOTE=jeimizu;31353167]The one in my city is probably going to close, since no one actually uses it, which is a shame, because it's an awesome building.
[IMG]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2481/3790177655_2afc12f534.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
That's a beautiful building, hopefully it'll be put to good use.
[QUOTE=jeimizu;31353510]There's still UPS, FedEx, etc for that.[/QUOTE]
A lot of private shipping companies make heavy use of the USPS. So if you close them down, you're closing down a lot of shipping routes to everyone.
[QUOTE=jeimizu;31353167]The one in my city is probably going to close, since no one actually uses it, which is a shame, because it's an awesome building.
[/QUOTE]Wow! Where's that?
[QUOTE=SwissArmyKnife;31352453]You guys realize most post offices are used primarily for package shipping and receiving right? I sure as hell can't email a statue of Tony Danza to that ebay buyer now can I?
That would be the main issue of losing a post office in your town.[/QUOTE]
but with a 3D printer you can :D
[QUOTE=viperfan7;31355058]but with a 3D printer you can :D[/QUOTE]
That's where all those counterfeit Tony Danza statues came from!
[QUOTE=SwissArmyKnife;31355108]That's where all those counterfeit Tony Danza statues came from![/QUOTE]Dammit! I knew I got ripped off!!!
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