I don't have any particular dislike for the U.S. Post Office, though like many government agencies I've had my share of minor run-ins. But during a stop for stamps yesterday I found myself wondering why my local Post Office looks so, well, depressing. I had time to ponder because there was one clerk at the counter, though it was just before Noon and a hefty line of customers was waiting. One the way in I had held the door for a woman who was carrying a batch of monopoly-game sized packages. "Mother's Day gifts?" asked another customer. "No, stuff I sold on e-bay" she responded proudly. She made several trips out to her car, and when her final fifteen or twenty packages were piled up, I was glad I was not the person behind her in line. Still waiting for my stamps, I had lots of time to look around. On just about every available surface there were signs telling customers what to do and not do. Others tried to convince us to become stamp collectors. Several announce that cash customers must have exact change ("Just for a while", the clerk explains, "too many people with $20 bills.") Many of the signs are hand written, giving the place an amateur look...like a kid's Cool-Aid stand rather than a retail establishment. The signs add to a general look of squalor. The credit card readers are plastered with (hand written) signs. The only place where customers can fill out forms is a narrow counter a foot away from the line that is now snaking towards the door. No additional help appears, and I feel even sorrier for the customers who are behind Monopoly Woman and her mountain of packages. Today's Montgomery Advertiser features a story on page one about the end of sales of the 41-cent "Forever Stamp", the one that you can buy today and it will be good to mailing a letter forever, regardless of price increases over the years. The price goes up to 42-cents on Saturday. Meanwhile, back in the P.O., there was one more customer in front of me, and she was renting a P.O. Box. If banks operated this way, I thought, you might find yourself waiting in line to make a deposit behind someone applying for a car loan. "Forever Stamp" was starting to take on a different meaning. Eventually I got to the counter, bought my book of not-forever stamps and left, wondering why the Post Office is so customer-unfriendly in its retail environment at the same time that fewer and fewer people are using mail. I remembered asking a Birmingham Postmaster during a 1980's radio show if he was worried about the new "fax" technology. He said he wasn't, that people would always need to use the U.S. Mail. Always. As in Forever. At the bottom of the news release announcing the Forever Stamp is a statement describing the Postal Service: "An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits 146 million homes and businesses, six days a week." And we might add, it is the only service to do so because, by law, no one is allowed to compete. As in, Monopoly.
Great post. My post office here in AC looks much the same and is staffed to exactly the same level.
ReplyDeleteI got a PO box over two years ago and every time I check it there is someone else's mail in it. The same people. Every time. No matter how many times I complain. I have lost count of how many boxes of blank checks and pre-approved credit cards of other people have shown up in my box. It's a darn good thing for them I am not a crook into identity theft. The Post Office should also be extremely grateful for my honesty.
I rarely ever use snail mail anymore. Almost all of my communications are electronic. I bought a book of stamps last months for the first time in years.