Full story at MSNBC
So my question is:
“Do you care if the post office stops, Saturday delivery?” How about if they stop delivery but keep the post office stations open?
You guys have Saturday delivery? Luxury!
They don’t deliver at all where I live, so it won’t affect me one bit. Though I would prefer that they keep the PO’s open so I can pick up my mail.
I’ve wondered for years why they are open and do deliveries on Saturdays. If I ran the post office, to save $ we would be open every other day.
Cutting off Saturday delivery would have to get past the Postal Regulatory Commission and Congress.
(Postal Service Dropping Saturday Delivery? Not so Fast)
The USPS has too many problems to survive in the long run. Closing down on Saturday, even if it saves money, will just hasten the decline.
Don’t care if it stops existing. Most of my mail is unsolicited. I can get every bill except the water-sewer online, and they’d be forced to change if there were no postal system. I’d happily Fedex rates to continue receiving my Cooks Illustrated and Wired subscriptions.
I really couldn’t care less. I view postal mail as something of a necessary evil. I know people have to send me things, but the ratio of useless paper to useful, interesting mail is something like 10,000 to 1. We’re whittling down the actual paper bills we receive, and aside from birthdays and holidays we never get cards or handwritten notes anymore, so one less day of ads and flyers? Sign me up.
I order a lot off the internet so saturday delivery and open neighberhood post offices are things I think worth keeping even if it costs more.
I got used to not having Saturday delivery in Australia, where it stopped a very long time ago. I was mildly surprised by having it when I moved to the US about 10 years ago.
What people mail is what people mail. It’s not going to change regardless of how many days you have the offices open or closed. It still needs to be processed. If you close the system down for 1/6th of the week, that means the postal workers are going to have to work almost 20% harder the other 5 days. That’s not a solution.
I think they can save a ton of money by eliminating delivery for half the week but keeping everything else open. So offices are open Saturday, mail’s sorted then too. But you only get mail Monday, Wednesday, Friday and maybe Saturday. Alternatively, half the areas get delivery M/W/F and the other half T/R/S.
You eliminate possibly 15-30% of your labor costs right off the bat but don’t slow down productivity.
I get real letters and nice things in my mailbox and they could cancel Saturday delivery and I wouldn’t care. I rarely check my mail on Saturday anyway.
I care for Netflix. Without Saturday delivery, on a busy week we’d be seriously affected. On the other hand, we’ve been using Watch Instantly more frequently.
If they’re going to stop one day, I would prefer it be Wednesday. If I’m expecting something on Friday and it doesn’t come, then I have to wait till Monday? I don’t want two consecutive days without mail. I pay almost all my bills online, but I do get magazines and journals, and I want mail delivery.
Me too as to wanting Saturday delivery for Netflix. If they have to shut down another day, I’d prefer that it be a weekday, so that there aren’t two days in a row with no delivery, but I imagine that would be more difficult in terms of staff scheduling.
If the USPS is going to stay on a 6-day schedule, they could deliver Monday, Wednesday and Friday on half the routes, and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday on the other half. That would probably save 20-25% of the costs of delivery. Netflicks users could adjust their returns to suit such a schedule.
I voted because I used to be a 'Mercan and I realize that I don’t miss Saturday delivery at all. In fact, I lived year a bunch of years before I even realized there was no Saturday mail delivery.
I do. I like getting mail. I hate junk mail, obviously, but it’s not like cutting one day back will reduce the amount I get; it’ll just concentrate it into other days. But I like getting Good Mail and I hate the idea that delivery times for things can get longer now.
I would prefer they stopped Monday or another Weekday instead. Saturday is often the only day I’m at home when the mail comes. If there is something I need to sign for, or if I’m ordering Aquarium plants or critters, it;s the only day for me to receive them. I think the week-day workschedule, although certainly far from universal, is common enough for this to be a major factor.
I’d be perfectly happy with 2-3 deliveries per week, I just want one of them to be a weekend day.
An NPR discussion fo this last night said that delivery used to be twice per day. WTF? What was the point of that?
Stop Wednesdays.
It probably seems selfish, but I say go ahead and shut the Post Office down. I rarely get anything useful in my mailbox anymore, and I can’t remember the last time I mailed anything from my home. All of my bills and most of my written correspondence are done online nowadays. I’m also saving a small bundle not having to purchase stamps.
If all post offices in the US shut down tomorrow I don’t think I would feel the impact at all. The entire USPS is as anachronistic as door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen as far as I’m concerned. Its decline is inexorable, its demise all-but inevitable.