It's that Time of Year… Post Office Lines are Seasonally LOOOOONG…

Man, Oh Man! (That should be your clue that this is another “rant & rave” entry…)

A few years ago, we got a brand new local post office for our area of town. It has been a real treat to have! It is absolutely unbelievable how long the waiting lines are on regular, non-holiday times of the year. The main counter has four windows that are supposed to be open for business. I have NEVER seen all four of those windows open!

I think that it’s sort of weird that we have this new state of the art post office right at the same time that the post office is having to cut down on the amount of employees. I guess that the work model the USPS used was the old “if you build more, they will come…” Unfortunately, with Fed Ex and UPS giving the USPS a run for their money by providing a consumer choice thrown into the business of sending things in the mail, it seems like all of these new state of the art buildings aren’t quite what the USPS should have been counting on to increase their revenue. It seems a shame that they have to lay off employees, but at the same time have (recently) built these beautiful facilities!

(Can you tell that I was NOT a business major in college… or an economics whiz, either?!?)

The point of this rather long entry is this: I just finished writing my Christmas letter to send out, and rather than go spend close to (at least!) a half hour in line trying to listen to my audio book, surrounded by people complaining (rather loudly!) about standing in the line, I just purchased my holiday stamps from the USPS website. Yippee for me! I feel like now I can devote my time to… cleaning bathrooms (a task which I look forward to just as eagerly as standing in the post office line!) (I did have to pay an extra dollar for the USPS to ship the 44¢ stamps to me, but I figure my time is worth that…)

Oh, and the reason I know about the long lines at the post office is that I have sent several boxes to my daughter at school. Lucky for me, I choose to use the “Click & Ship” option online… which I absolutely love. Whenever I have a box to send, I  just whip up to the front of the line and place my box in one of the empty three windows. It seems a shame that the USPS can only afford to man one of the four windows at the post office, but it does make it convenient for those of us who use the “Click and Ship” method of  mailing.

And, as an extra bonus for me, I usually get a great feeling of accomplishment when I simply go to “the head of the class,” drop off my pre-paid, pre-labeled box, and continue with my day… (I think it’s called a “simple pleasure” of life…)