U.S. Postal Service Expands to 100,000 Locations
Find Nearest Neighborhood Site at www.uspseverywhere.com
WASHINGTON – With nearly 100,000 places to buy stamps, ship a package or renew a passport, the U.S. Postal Service is expanding customer access to its products and services. It’s not about brick-and- mortar Post Offices anymore, as postal products move online and into retail outlets, grocery stores, office supply chains and pharmacies.
Responding to changing customer needs and a business plan that calls for expanding access to Postal Service products, stores including Costco and Office Depot are offering shipping and mailing services.
According to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe, the Postal Service is changing for the better.
“We’re teaming up with hundreds of new stores so customers can do postal business at places where they already shop,” Donahoe said. “Americans have more to do and less time to do it. We know simpler is better – online, on your mobile device, on your way, with an expertise that you can count on.”
Customers can find dozens of locations to purchase postal services within their neighborhoods by visiting an interactive map at www.uspseverywhere.com and typing in a ZIP Code. Using a simple icon guide designating stamps, shipping and packaging, PO Boxes and other services, customers can easily navigate to retail outlets, grocery stores, Automated Postal Center (APC) kiosks and Post Offices, among other options.
With Post Office hours usually ending by 5 p.m. or earlier, customers can send a Priority Mail Flat Rate Box and buy Forever stamps as long as the alternate sites are open – often as late as 9 p.m. Some sites are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We’re creating easier, more convenient access to products and services when and where our customers want them,” Donahoe said. “We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere.”
There are about 32,000 Post Office locations around the country that sell Postal Service products and services. There are more than 50,000 other locations selling postage stamps alone – the top product sold at Post Offices. With the additional shipping provider locations added in, customers have about 100,000 locations and ways to do business with the Postal Service.
Nearly 35 percent of the Postal Service retail revenue comes from expanded access locations such as Costco, Office Depot, grocery stores, drug stores, APCs, ATMs and usps.com, open 24/7.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
An electronic press kit on expanded access, including b-roll, JPEGs and audio soundbites can be found at http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/expandedaccess/welcome.htm
We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere: www.uspseverywhere.com
Why is it that postage stamps at corner stores cost .50 cents or more????
Postage Stamps at corner stores cost .50 cents. Why is this????????????
I work at one of these alternate sites and I know I don’t give a sh$t!!!
I also know that these places charge more for the products we sale they have to make a proft and the people that go there think they are gettin better service well you are helpin them make money while at the same time they are tryin to find ways to get rid of the window clerks so you are helpin them. The Post Office thinks they are gettin money from these places when they are losin money with them. The next time you need one stamp go ask them how much it cost.
Sure, “customers can send a Priority Mail Flat Rate Box and buy Forever stamps as long as the alternate sites are open”. What the PMG isn’t telling you is that your flat rate box isn’t going anywhere until the next day. When the Post office opens and comes to pick it up!
Also, I know someone that went to Office Depot to mail out an international package. They told her how much it cost but for some reason they were not able to mail it for her. When she took it to the Post Office to mail it, she found out the real price was $25.00 LESS than she was told at Office Depot.
I guess thats the price you pay for dealing with poorly trained and inexperienced people at these “alternate sites”. They should stick to selling copy paper and pens!
So much for safety of the mail!! You dont have postal employees handling the packages, then no one asks if they are HFL,potentially hazardous!! Are these outlets explaining that those packages accepted after 5 will be delayed by a day???? We have a customer that works at a local pak n post and brings their parcels into our office the day after they accept them, to mail them off at our rates. Even though we appreciate their WIR, much of the forms are not completed correctly, ie customs forms, and they really dont seem to care. I guess you get what you pay for!! Coming to our office gets you service at the counter 9 hrs a day 5 days a wk and 4 hrs on sat and satisfaction that things will be handled properly! If the postal service is doiling out our jobs to contractors, who is to check up on them to make sure things are working to postal standards?? Inspection going to check in on them and make sure no flammable things are going thru, like wine or combustables? We are not just dumb clerks ringing up stamps, we have yrs and yrs of knowledge in our jobs and enjoy our customers!