The Internet Is Killing The Post Office

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The Washington Post says that almost seven hundred post offices around the country could be shuttered this year. The reason? The evil internet is to blame. Damn you evil internet, damn you!!!

The Postal Service has marked 677 post offices nationwide for possible closure or consolidation, according to a document given today to a House subcommittee holding a hearing on the future of American mail delivery. Among them are 10 post offices in the District and three in the Maryland suburbs of Hyattsville, Rockville and Silver Spring.
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OMG my republican father will panic..

"thousands of american's will lose jobs"

meanwhile forgetting tens of thousands received jobs by replacing the out of date USPS
 
I have two post offices withing 1/4 mile of me. That's stupid, and honestly if you fired all the crap workers from both, you wind up with one pretty good post office in terms of employees.
 
jroe52 said:
OMG my republican father will panic..

"thousands of american's will lose jobs"

meanwhile forgetting tens of thousands received jobs by replacing the out of date USPS
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Republican?? Last I checked it was the Democrat's ideals to keep failing companies propped up to save jobs...

It's also not like this is an overnight deal. USPS will be around for a long time, they may gradually die out but it'll be a phased-in thing IMO.

The only redemption is they're still REALLY cheap to mail letters, compared to FedEx or UPS. They do suck at packages though.

wtsamatta said:
ut oh, can you say e-mail tax coming?
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We already pay taxes on the internet service... Sheesh I hope the Internet is the one thing we can keep freedom with.
 
Thanks to internet bill-paying, I haven't really mailed a letter in several years. (the last stamps I actually bought were 37cents, and 1st class is now 44 cents) The last time I went to a post office, I was looking to buy stamps for ironically, a pair of MIR forms for the Asus 9600GSO cards I bought last month. So I figure, zip in, use their stamp vending machines, drop in the slot, zip out.

But the USPS in their infinite wisdom phased out stamp vending machines in the four post offices I visited. You have to wait in that god-awful line to buy two first class stamps.

"The House subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service today reviewed the various options as the Postal Service struggles amid sharply declining mail volume and the gradual migration to e-mail and online payment systems."

You'd think the rise of online shopping & auction sites would've offset that migration. Almost all of the eBay stuff I buy gets shipped USPS.
 
Considering the USPS can't even get a goddamn tracking system to update sometime this year, literally, its not surprising.

There's a shipment from Amazon that I'm allegedly still waiting on according to it. Even though I received it about two months ago.
 
Is it really surprising? Emails have made letter writing ALMOST obsolete, I mean hell they've raised prices steadily on stamps, yet compared to 95% of what comes in my mailbox, which is junk mail, postal rates are not as quick to rise. It seems they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them (bulk mail prices), yet it's the smaller percentage of people mailing stuff that takes the blame.
 
USPS should just reinvent to compete with ups and fedex.

Seriously, i use usps for packages only... The only letters I send anymore are rebates.
 
i saw this coming along time ago............i just thought it would happen sooner. rising prices of stamps should of been one indicator. think how much stamps were back in early 80s or so and what they are now. why send snail mail anymore when a letter or card can be there in seconds.
 
So... no chance of a sequel?

postal-2.jpg
 
The USPS has served it's purpose for many many years - and much like the human appendix, we'll do just fine without it.
 
If netflix had everything available via Watch Instant, that would eliminate 80% of the mail I get now :D
 
sodina said:
i dont know.
theres always mad line at the post office i go to.
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Yeah, I have 5 post offices within 3 miles, each with 5 windows inside, yet there are 2 people working them at all times. That's logic for you.
 
The net has really optimized the way many business models are done. By making them virtual, this is the next evolution in commerce. USPS is no different than any other brick and mortar that is seeing their clientele go to the internet to do business. It's easier, faster, cheaper, and for those vaunted enviro-kooks, it produces less emissions and reduces 'carbon footprints', etc. etc. and all that other bullshit.
 
Maybe the USPS can take over all domestic emails. You'd have to use USPS software and relay the emails through them first for a small fee, perhaps on a subscription basis. With centralized control of the email infrastructure, they could perhaps more effectively fight spam than we can right now. Maybe even migrate email to its own protocol, call it USPS://
 
Actually a lot of you are very wrong in your assumptions. I was on a Postal contract for over 4 years so I saw a lot of what is eating away at the USPS.

The number one money maker for Postal is the BRM or Bulk Rate Mail. BRM is all the lovely junk mail you receive or a bill (which is worse then junk mail ;) ). It's something like 89+% of their income.

Normal First Class mail like a letter is actually a very small percentage of their yearly income.

So it's not e-mail that's killing Postal, but the Internet is playing a role due to things like paperless online bill paying. Likewise most junk mail are ads for local grocery chains or a Walgreens type store. Why print and send that junk mail when they can spam you via Google with their ads instead?

Also to the comments about not raising rates on anything else but the stamp. Again you're wrong. Stamps, Priority mail rates, parcel post rates, international rates, BRM rates and the rest, all of it has gone up. Especially over the last 2-3 years. Stamps are just the most visible.

Postal also has to pay out on the pensions and benefits for their employees and retirees which is a few billion dollars a year and growing. On top of it Postal wasn't allowed to make profit for many, many years. Meaning they couldn't save money for the future.

So it's not just the Internet. It's a number of things and the economy isn't helping because the levels of BRM have gone down with the economy as companies try to save money.

USPS probably isn't disappearing anytime soon but you will see then have to drastically change the way they do things.
 
Yep, all I use the post office is mailing in rebate requests. :O
Actually, closing post offices will probably *increase* the chances of a "going postal" incident occurring.

So winds change, you don't see any pagers anymore... people don't send snail mail as much anymore, it's the new reality.
 
Man I thought USPS did a pretty okay job on everything I've sent or received. The fact that it's a good cheaper alternative is what I like. I've preffered it over that rip off UPS or crappy DHL. Fed Ex is fantastic too but pricey.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Is it really surprising? Emails have made letter writing ALMOST obsolete, I mean hell they've raised prices steadily on stamps,
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And yet it's STILL cheaper, by far, to mail a letter with USPS than UPS or FedEx. That's why they're still here.

Letter writing isn't obsolete, I mean if you want a personal letter, it's still alot better to stick your actual signature on it.

Vermillion said:
The number one money maker for Postal is the BRM or Bulk Rate Mail.
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I'd agree to that as well, but again: paperless billing is killing them. We send a CRAP ton of invoices and stuff out, we're a bulk rate customer. But where possible, we try to get them setup on email (or at least fax) to invoice.
 
jroe52 said:
OMG my republican father will panic..

"thousands of american's will lose jobs"

meanwhile forgetting tens of thousands received jobs by replacing the out of date USPS
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I hate to tell you this, but...

You're father is not Republican.
 
All the USPS has to do is do what they have been doing for years, raise their prices again. That will bring in people in droves.

I'm sure they will run health care much better.:rolleyes:
 
At least everyone is saving trees by going paperless. Maybe one day USPS will turn into a just package delivery service like UPS or FedEx.
 
Of the 6 mailing days a week, there is something in my mailbox maybe 3 of those days. And at least one of those three days everything in the mailbox ends up in the trash can outside my house, not even making it inside. So I get mail twice a week.

Cut delivery by 50%. Do delivery on mon, wed, fri. I'd be OK with that. The USPS' recent report said that dropping 1 delivery day would cut their budget deficit in half. So why not just go ahead and eliminate 3 delivery days and have a budget surplus.
 
trick_m0nkey said:
I hate to tell you this, but...

You're father is not Republican.
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sorry republicans are scared of change, ever watch family guy?

and duh umm he is republican. whats up with hardocp members being backward yocals lately?


oh wait you must be republican PEOPLE DON'T HAVE OPINIONS THERE JUST SHEEP DUH
 
GJSNeptune said:
Hmm. I'm down with that, but Netflix would need to create its own postal service then. :D
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Why? They already throttle the hell out of people that use their service. This would just be a quick and dirty way for them to trottle users. I would bet Neflix would warm up to this idea quickly.

And Netflix really doesn't matter because "Streaming everything over the internet is right around the corner" anyway... Note a seriously thick layer of sarcasm when I say that.
 
The only redemption is they're still REALLY cheap to mail letters, compared to FedEx or UPS. They do suck at packages though.
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I disagree. If I have a choice between USPS and any of the other carriers, I much prefer USPS. They've worked well wherever I've lived and they're generally much cheaper than UPS or Fedex. If I miss a package there are USPS offices much much closer with better hours than UPS or Fedex. Their tracking does kind of suck, but I'll take that with 1/2 the delivery time any day.
 
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