“WASHINGTON (AP) - Through snow, rain and gloom of night - but maybe not on the weekend. Battered by slowing business and huge projected losses, the Postal Service announced Tuesday that it will study cutting back to a five-day schedule that would eliminate mail delivery on Saturdays. The agency also will examine how much money can be saved by consolidating and closing some postal plants and offices.”
Jesus H. Christ and his Blue Flame Syncopators!!! I have a good friend who’s a mail carrier, so I am not going to blame this on them (she tells me all kinds of horror stories about what they have to go through, especially with the recent cutbacks). But surely there must be SOME way the goddam Postal Service can avoid doing THIS!
Personally, I usually don’t remember to check my mail on Saturdays. I’m not sure how much effect this cut back would have on the average consumer.
I would further guess that doing this would cause further erosion in those using the Postal Service to send things.
9 days out of 10 the only thing in my mailbox is an advertizing flyer that goes straight into the trashcan before I turn around and return to my apartment.
I communicate with friends and family through e-mail, or phone call. I wouldn’t have any problem having my bills arrival limited to weekdays.
Consolidating and closing some postal plants and offices? That sounds like another way to cut U.S. jobs. All in the name of “budget cutbacks” or something like that. I’ve come to depend on Saturday mail – am I spoiled? What do the non-U.S. Dopers think?
I’ve heard rumors of proposed taxes on e-mail messages. Would that include SDMB posts? The horror, the horror.
Well, I am one of those dinosaurs who still writes letters. Actual, multi-page letters, with enclosures. People love getting 'em, and I love getting letters in return.
I also get magazines, contracts, catalogs (ones I want, that is) and other deliveries in the mail . . . Y’know, mail USED to be delivered several times a DAY. Is it asking too much for it to be delivered ONCE on Saturdays?!
The USPS is not a for-profit business, it’s a government-owned corporation. It receives no tax subsidies, so it has to at least break even. If they’re losing money, they need to cut something back.
Yes, and before that mail USED to be delivered several times a year. And the number of letters just about equaled the number of lathered horse carcasses littering the midwest.
I’d write more, but I’ve got to go see what’s taking my microwave dinner so long to cook.
Why in the Hell did my stamps go up in price, and they want to cut out Saturdays. Raise the damn reduced rates for bulk mails I don’t want. They sure won’t change to FedX or UPS.
I want my mail delivered on Saturdays!!! I don’t want to pay more than a nickel per envelope!!! I don’t care about he costs, I want my Saturday mail!!!
For some reason, I think the equation is something like:
Cut out the Saturday delivery, or pay 50 cents a piece. Pick your poison pill.
I have been wondering for years why they even have Saturday mail. I’m sorry, almost all of us can live without Saturday mail. I have even thought that every other day is enough mail for most houses. I also think that 34 cents is a perfectly wonderful price for a letter to go from MY HOUSE to ANY OTHER house in the United States.
Sheesh, what a bunch of whine-babies.
Yeah, yeah, I know…I couldn’t decide, though, so I sort of tried to play it in a way that wouldn’t be obvious that I was being wooshed, if, indeed, I was.
So long as they leave the Post Office open its regular schedule on Saturday, I think I’ll be okay. But if along with not delivering mail on Saturdays, they want to not offer any postal service (like on Sundays), I will be very upset.
I remember when they picked up mail (at the boxes and at the offices) on Sundays. Which could be very convenient. I really missed it when they stopped doing that, and this is just one more thing that they’ll be taking away. Bit by bit…
My dad was a postal worker for 40+ years (the longest anyone had worked at the Glendale, CA main office, thankyouverymuch) and if he were alive today I know he’d be heartsick. I dunno, it’s just WRONG. (But then again, my dad paled at the phrase “UPS” too, he was very loyal…) I really look forward to my mail on Saturdays. I do a lot of email these days, but nothing is quite like an old-fashioned letter. I have a lot of deep “feelings” about the mail, and I always really look forward to getting the mail each day. I guess that’s what comes from being raised by such a loyal postal worker. It’s in the blood!
I hope this is all just a bad dream. I am utterly dejected.
To me, not getting mail on Saturday means those bills don’t arrive till Monday. <shrug> Now that my parents have joined the e-mail generation, I don’t get handwritten letters from anyone. No biggie…
Jesus, you people sure are good-natured about governemnt services wooshing right down the terlet, even as they charge us more and more for what they’re not even fucking GIVING us.
And as I said above, I actually get mail I want—I feel sorry for you poor shmoes who only get bills. Don’t you know anyone who writes letters anymore? I still have a lot of friends with whom I exchange delightful correspondences. I also get a lot of research material for my books through the mail . . .
I will be royally pissed off if Saturday deliveries stop—you know it’s because someone High Up is getting raises every year, not because there’s “no money.” Where I live, the goddam libraries close on Saturdays during the summer, so it might as well be Sunday all weekend . . . But that’s another Pit thread . . .
