I remember their advertising, so I googled them to see if they were a local or national chain. According to Wikipedia, their jingle was " When the values go up, up, up … And the prices go down, down, down …Robert Hall this season … Will show you the reason … High quality … economy. ") My recollection is “ Low overhead … Low overhead ” instead of, “ High quality … economy”.
The USPS is just the opposite: In the past two years, I see lower quality and higher prices. A $2000 check to my credit card company took 43 days (and $11 interest charge). My tax return took 8 days to go via Priority Mail while they advertise two days. I ship many one pound posters to customers. Since 2021, the minimum price for Priority shipping one pound has jumped from $7.70 to $12.70 (65%) for packages over 22” long. And the cost of a Forever Stamp increases 3.5% in July.
I don’t remember Robert Hall Clothes (though I wasn’t alive for at least half their existence, it would seem), but I would imagine some people do. I hope that answers your question.
As for your gripes:
Pay your credit cards through your bank. Your bank will appreciate it, your credit card company will appreciate it, and the Post Office would likely appreciate it.
File your tax return on-line, although I do have to wonder why you filed your tax return via Priority Mail. That seems like a waste of money.
As for your business of mailing one pound posters to customers, you may have to adjust your business model if it cannot absorb the increase. What are your competitors doing in face of these drastic, even draconian, changes to a vital sector of your business?
As for the Forever Stamp increase, you should have stocked-up when they were cheap!
The post office’s bottom line is immensely improved now that they no longer are required to prepay pension benefits for 70 years. It’s possible they’ll not raise the price of a stamp this year, since it cuts billions of dollars from its budget.
My Girl Scout troup did a fashion show fundraiser with Robert Hall! I got to wear the cutest dress, and all the other girls were jealous. My sole memory of Robert Hall. The building that particular outlet was in is now a Centinela Feed store.
The Postal Service has been under siege for decades, particularly from Republicans who seem to hate its existence. If it were permitted to operate without political interference, it would be much better off.
I remember Robert Hall. IIRC the Robert Hall warehouse store system didn’t work for them and they went bankrupt.
A certain segment of this country wants the USPS to go bankrupt and close so they can make money from private mail services before those go bankrupt leaving us without a mail system. And maybe that’s for the better. Yes, it will be expensive to send someone a letter compared to current prices, but the need for physical mail is rapidly dwindling. The USPS is now a junk mail and package delivery service that also occasionally delivers small envelope size packages at a discount rate. We could find alternatives.
I bought a bunch, and now I hardly ever use them any more. The two-dozen-or-so that I have should last me for the rest of my life and for some time thereafter.
I recently chatted with the owner of a small online business about the time it takes his packages to arrive to buyers. He sells nothing but playing cards and most of this sales are shipped USPS first class parcel. These small packages should take 2-4 days to reach people in the continental US. My reason for chatting with him was because my small first class package took 13 days to get from Texas to Washington state. As a test, I bought 2 decks of playing cards, he shipped one using first class parcel and the other using parcel post. The first class parcel cost $5.95, the parcel post $3.80. Both were dropped of at his local post office on April 4th. 5 days later, on April 9th, I received the parcel post package. It took 4 more days, on April 13th, to get the first class parcel. He took this info and talked to the postmaster at his local post office. Due to cuts in personnel, this post office no longer sorts packages (or any mail) prior to shipping it to a distribution center. From there, the PM thinks many if not most first class packages are ending up in parcel post shipments instead of first class parcel shipments. The parcel post shipment also had tracking all the way from Houston to my home, the first class parcel did not show any tracking till the package arrived at my local post office. We both figure that all of this is a result of the great post office slow down started a few years ago.
About thirty years ago, I needed a suit for a job search so I drove to Manhattan with my father. At my insistence, we started at Barney’s (fancy, snooty clothing store) but the salesman was less than helpful. I think he spotted me as not their usual customer. So we went to Moe Ginsburg, a discount suit retailer. There the salesguy looked at me, identified my size by appearance and showed me a fifty-foot rack of suits that would fit. So much better experience and cheaper suit. I think it cost under $250. (BTW, that’s where George Costanza bought his suit on the sitcom Seinfeld.)
Nothing much to add other than that Robert Hall was a fixture at Belmont and Central in the 60s. IIRC, there was a competitor on the next block named Frederick Stephens. But better bargains were to be had at some crammed shop down on Laramie IIRC. Prolly along the line of Moe Ginsburg in NYC.