# Goodbye, Saturday delivery **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 6, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502 "2013-02-06T17:15:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/21 "2013-02-06T19:31:58Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > With Google, you’re the commodity - not the customer. Frame that clue and hang it on the wall. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/22 "2013-02-06T19:39:07Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > I heard it on the radio this morning. The Post Office is going to [end Saturday delivery](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/06/postal-service-to-cut-saturday-mail-to-trim-costs) of 1st Class mail this summer. They’re supposed to need congressional approval to do this, but apparently they think they’ve found a way around this. Since Congress won’t let them adjust the pension system overfunding disaster and won’t them branch out into new areas, they have to do something to keep from going under. I suppose this is at least feasible and attention-getting. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/23 "2013-02-06T19:54:54Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > You’re not in a mail intensive business, I take it. My office gets about 15 million pieces of mail per year. Dividing that over 6 days per week makes it much more manageable than 5 days/week. If (when) Saturday delivery goes away, our Mondays will become impossible. > > I’m not saying it doesn’t make sense from the USPS point of view, but it will be rough for a while on a lot of businesses. What business are you in where you get 50000 pieces of mail a day? I wonder if it would make sense for certain businesses to buy Saturday delivery. Most people and business don’t really require Saturday delivery. But for businesses like yours, it seems like you should be able to still have a way to get the mail. They’re already going to be out delivering packages anyway. Perhaps they could allow you to pay for Saturday delivery or they could do it for free for businesses over a certain mail volume. The USPS would want to keep those kinds of businesses happy since they are probably subsidizing a lot of other mail. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/24 "2013-02-06T20:06:45Z")
This is great news. This means I’ll only have to pull handfuls of trash, ads and unwanted crap out of my mailbox 5 days a week now. ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/25 "2013-02-06T20:23:33Z")
The Monday delivery is probably going to exceed the capacity of my mailbox most weeks. How much do they make per address for delivering stuff we all immediately toss? What about a paid opt-out service for junk mail? I’d gladly pay a couple hundred bucks per annum to keep from sorting through and chucking all that shit. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/26 "2013-02-06T20:30:11Z")
> [@Furious\_Marmot](#): > > The Monday delivery is probably going to exceed the capacity of my mailbox most weeks. > > How much do they make per address for delivering stuff we all immediately toss? What about a paid opt-out service for junk mail? I’d gladly pay a couple hundred bucks per annum to keep from sorting through and chucking all that shit. Junk mail keeps the post office alive. It has minimal costs to the post office, and provides income from the postage. It’s all sorted with 9 digit zips and paid for in bulk. In many areas it wouldn’t be worth sending the trucks out without it. Package delivery has been helping out recently with all the etail business. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/27 "2013-02-06T20:39:51Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > What business are you in where you get 50000 pieces of mail a day? He works for the post office. ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/28 "2013-02-06T20:39:14Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Junk mail keeps the post office alive. It has minimal costs to the post office, and provides income from the postage. It’s all sorted with 9 digit zips and paid for in bulk. In many areas it wouldn’t be worth sending the trucks out without it. Package delivery has been helping out recently with all the etail business. I understand that. My question is twofold: How much does the Post Office make per address, per year, from junk mail delivery? Obviously this will vary, but a ballpark number would be a good start. What about a system where the customer has the option to pay some amount per year to avoid delivery of junk mail? The Post Office gets the money and saves money by not actually having to deliver crap no one wants. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/29 "2013-02-06T20:42:23Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > The problem with the Post Office, IMHO, is that they define their purpose as “delivering physical objects.” If they had defined it as “providing informational services,” they might have been able to branch out into the Internet and survive. The Postal Service doesn’t define its own purpose; Congress does. And, actually, I recall that the Postal Service did float an “electronic letter” idea long before E-mail and the Web became ubiquitous. You’d have to go to the post office to read your electronic letter though. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/30 "2013-02-06T21:13:35Z")
You guys still have Saturday delivery?! Holy sh-t! I don’t remember when Canada did away with it; it was certainly a long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/31 "2013-02-06T21:15:02Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Since Congress won’t let them adjust the pension system overfunding disaster and won’t them branch out into new areas, they have to do something to keep from going under. That’s the problem in a nutshell. It’s no that the Post Office is too hidebound to branch out and adapt; it’s legally prohibited from doing so in any meaningful way. There are forces in Congress that want to kill private mail delivery, and hamstringing the Post Office with rules that the private delivery services don’t have to abide by (like the pension funding law) is how they’re going about it. I wonder how many people are aware that this is going to also impact UPS and FedEx, as those two services often contract out "last mile’ deliver to the local Post Office. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/32 "2013-02-06T21:50:33Z")
It’s about time. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/33 "2013-02-06T21:52:21Z")
Doesn’t bother me any. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/34 "2013-02-06T21:56:00Z")
[And Wait Until You Cocksuckers See What We Do With Wednesdays](http://www.theonion.com/articles/postal-service-and-wait-until-you-cocksuckers-see,31189/) ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/35 "2013-02-07T01:59:50Z")
The government can’t handle delivering the damn mail yet people want government run healthcare :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/36 "2013-02-07T02:05:55Z")
The obvious way to get the Pissed Office back to profitability is for them to cover what is draining their revenue: they should add a low-cost wireless broadband service (like clearwire, but with coverage). ---
**Author:** ![ski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@ski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ski)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/37 "2013-02-07T02:45:49Z")
I’ve seen this quote in a few articles, from the head of the postal union (so obviously he has an agenda), regarding the changes to Saturday delivery: “It would be particularly harmful to small businesses, rural communities, the elderly, the disabled and others who depend on Saturday delivery for commerce and communication.” Okay, so I get that it may be problematic for some businesses. But why would it be more of a problem for rural communities, elderly, and disabled people, than other people? Educate me, please, because I could go without Saturday delivery without a problem. Even before the internet, I don’t see that it would have been a big deal. Since the post office doesn’t guarantee a delivery date on most of its mail, it’s not like I’d rely on something being here Saturday - and “rely” meaning that I’ll be screwed if it doesn’t get here that day. So why is it a bigger problem for the above mentioned groups? Heck, if I needed to, I could probably do just fine on one-day-a-week delivery. I grant that that might not be normal. Is there some real truth to this, or is it typical politics where the union head is claiming the sky will fall? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/38 "2013-02-07T03:10:31Z")
> [@ski](#): > > “It would be particularly harmful to small businesses, rural communities, the elderly, the disabled and others who depend on Saturday delivery for commerce and communication.” > > Okay, so I get that it may be problematic for some businesses. But why would it be more of a problem for rural communities, elderly, and disabled people, than other people? My guess is that in rural communities, where distances between services are greater than cities, or for those unable to drive, some people can’t just walk down to the corner for supplies, but rely upon them being delivered to their door. If they have no Saturday delivery, they may have a 3-day wait for whatever they need immediately, or pay a higher cost for custom services. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/39 "2013-02-07T03:19:16Z")
> [@PandaBear77](#): > > The government can’t handle delivering the damn mail yet people want government run healthcare :rolleyes: Are people promising that no one will ever die if there is UHC? ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502/40 "2013-02-07T08:23:45Z")
I would cut further. Do businesses on MWF and residences on T Th. I can’t for the life of me think of anything in the mail that so important it can’t wait few days. And if it can’t, there is the parcel service. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-saturday-delivery/649502.md?page=3)