Post Office News

Are you ready for the postage hike coming in May? Do you know that rates go up on May 11? What are the new rates?

$0.44 First Class, first ounce (up $0.02)
$0.17 First Class, second ounce (no change)
$0.28 postcard
$0.31 "stamped card"

OK, so what is a "stamped card"? Is a "stamped card" the familiar "picture postcard" to which you affix a stamp? Is that what is to be $0.31?

Is a "postcard" the USPS postcard with the postage already on it?

You might still be able to buy Forever stamps for $0.42. Those are the stamps that are good "forever", regardless of future increases in first-class postage rates.

And another change? Recently I took a nicely and tightly wrapped package to the Post Office to mail. You know the type - wrapped in grocery-bag paper, taped across the seams. And guess what I learned?

One of the days you won't be able to wrap it yourself and mail it. You'll have to mail/ship your item in a box. Where do you buy the box? At the Post Office, of course.

Just another money-making gimmick. Those guys will be driving themselves out of business pretty soon.

Just what is it worth to have a mail carrier trudging up and down the lawns to deliver the mail. It ought to be a nice $30,000/year job. Who knows what carriers and counter clerks really get paid?

I recall a Post Office counter clerk in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1989 who was so stoned that he couldn't count out ten postal cards I was trying to buy. The postmaster told me that counter position paid $33,000/year, and that was in 1989! I told her she ought to fire the guy and hire a clerk from 7-11 for $5.75/hour, but the unions were too strong.