Priority Mail

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night …

Nor Saturday delivery, apparently, it seems.

The U.S. Postal Service – which has operated in the red for a number of years, it seems – announced yesterday that it will cease Saturday delivery in August a cost-cutting measure. The USPS will continue to offer Saturday package service.

It seems like a good move to me. I mean, after all, do we really gain a lot from Saturday delivery? If you get something business-related you can’t do anything about it until Monday anyway. 

And, if I understand correctly, delivery to post office boxes will continue on Saturday as is current practice.

And anything to cease (or at least slow) the dizzying rate of postage increases is fine by me.

I can’t even remember how much a first class postage stamp costs now. Didn’t the rate just increase? Hold on a second. For your benefit and mine, I’ll look it up (PAUSE HERE. INSERT ON-HOLD MUSIC). OK. I’m back. I just looked it up. The rate increased from 45 cents to 46 cents late last month. I couldn’t have told you either rate. Old OR New.

In any case, it would seem the loss of a Saturday home delivery of bills, direct mail postcards and, for us recently, a smattering of sales propaganda from colleges including places like St. Leo University in Florida, Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK, and St. Bonaventure University in NY (HINT – Paul isn’t going to pursue an undergraduate degree at any of those universities despite the nice packaging) won’t be a painful price to pay.

Letter writing, as we know, is a lost art form. I remember getting great chronicles from friends in the past. My friend, Bill Cooke, and I sent a number of letters back and forth in the 1980s, for example. But no one does that any more. With easy access to email, texting and instant messaging , people just aren’t willing to pay those 46 cents (and wait a few days) for correspondence to come or go.

Otherwise, what exciting mail do you get? Packages? Yes, those are wonderful (but not affected by this plan).  Greeting cards? True, but you can plan ahead to ensure early arrival. Event Tickets?  Postcards? RSVPs, Confirmations and Acceptances? Newsletters, magazines, journals?

Help me out, here, I’m running out of examples of things we’d really miss by waiting two days to get the mail on Monday.

I guess the bottom line is we adjust from time to time when market factors necessitate change.

And sometime, somewhere, some clever blogger will write one of those ‘Do you remember when?” columns about Saturday mail delivery. Hey, come to think of it, that’s not a half bad idea.

I’ll send a ‘note to self.’ I’ll just plan to get it out on Thursday so it’ll arrive on a Friday. 

JG

Originally posted 2/7/2013