Thursday, June 16, 2011

Spreading our wings

The Postal Service sells stamps and products in a variety of places - ATM's, grocery stores and now select Office Depots.

Where else could we expand our services? Are theree businesses that could especially help stock, sell and promote our products?

Do you see expansion as a good thing?

10 comments:

grannybunny said...

I see the expansion as a good thing -- saving the cost of brick and mortar post offices -- but believe the customers would get better service and USPS services would be more appropriately marketed if these alternative locations were staffed by Postal employees, assuming the demand for shipping at the specific location is great enough.

tekgems said...

USPS is wasting a lot of money having counters at all these locations that they do not own. If you're going to rent, pay rent inside supermarkets, office supply stores, etc. There should be some restrictions that post office I think USPS needs more counters serving consumer mailing needs. Anything of volume would need to be redirected to a main shipping hub. Business mailers should arrange to have local pickups done.

Anonymous said...

This is a good thing... it will give illegals a legitimate place to work...

Anonymous said...

How about encouraging vendors to provide service at major airports? Instead of trashing their belongings they're not allowed to fly with; they could mail them home.

Anonymous said...

I understand the selling of stamps and other retail items at retail outlets, but anything having to do with mail acceptance and parcels should not be intrusted to the retail outlets. Here's an idea...expand back into the offices you closed!

Anonymous said...

Customers assume if there is a USPS service available, the staff will know the products.

At minimum, we need a kiosk separate from competitors and certified training for staff. I propose more of the APCs. Colleges, airports, outlet malls, Wal-Mart, etc. We are there already delivering mail.

Anonymous said...

I don't consider it "expansion" if you're allowing stamps and products to be sold at alternate locations, staffed by minimum wage, untrained employees, while closing bricks and mortar Post Offices as fast as possible. It's a perfect way for the USPS to become even more irrelevant.

Anonymous said...

Want to save money...offer each postmaster the option of running there post office as a francise. I would gladly take a pay cut, but in return.....hands off my operation, remove the unions, lift the goverment restrictions and oversight, and let me run this office like a business. Give me a fixed amount each year, how and where I spend the money is no one's business by mine. No forms, no daily reports, no conference calls about productivity....just take it in and move it out.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the previous poster...it's not really expansion if you're closing actual post offices and using minimum wage, unskilled store clerks to sell our products. What about the sanctity of the mail? Are our customers still going to consider us the most trusted government agency if we're outsourcing our work? I don't entirely disagree with having a postal presence inside stores, airports, malls, etc., but they should be staffed by postal personnel who know the products and will really sell them.

Jeff said...

Office Depot requires the customer to type out full shipping information on a computer just like the customer would do if shipping through the USPS web site. Shipping from a U.S. Post Office is a lot easier than shipping from Office Depot.