Can someone tell me why we still have a branch of the post office in every zip code? I came from a town of less than 1500 people and there is a post office there, one in the town 5 minutes away with less than 1000, and a FULL BRANCH less than another 7 minutes after that. Perhaps they should be looking at size rather than redundancy.

Looking at just the closings in my region, they're all in deep urban areas (I hesitate to use the politically-incorrect term "slums," but it would seem to apply), with a couple in downtown areas that had once been home to tens of thousands of workers but no longer have anywhere near that workforce. Thus, closing them certainly looks like a perfectly-sensible way to save money.

A lot of the locations on there look like they are in malls/train stations and other secondary branches. (Ex. Franklin Mills in Philadelphia is a quickly dying mall, yet still has had a PO location all these years for whatever reason).

Closing branches on the basis of suck would disable every branch in Brooklyn instantly. Every time I schlep to a different one, I find it to be arguably worse than the previous Byzantine horror.

@mbz32190: it's open because government run operations are much slower to act on things like lack of demand than privately run companies. even though that office prob hasnt been necessary for several years, they keep the office open, and even if they close it they'll continue to employ the people that worked there, so they won't even be saving as much money as they could

Interesting. Nothing in the Northern VA area, but lots in Hampton, Richmond and Roanoke.

Holy cow, Saint Louis is getting hammered in this. From a quick browse of the list, it looks like it's the worst hit city (aside from New York City and in terms of sheer number, not total impact). I know we have a major routing branch here, but where are the remaining customer-serving branches after all these closings?

@pecan 3.14159265: I know that in my corner of NoVA it's hard to *find* a post office, hehe. I mailed my wedding invitations from one in Silver Spring, near my office.

Of course, now, naturally, that Silver Spring post office is on this list. Which irritates me, because this is the one year in the last, oh, twenty or so, that I've really needed to send large volumes of handwritten, stamped mail...

@That One Caveman: Customer service? This is the post office.
Their refrain in Venice FL: Don't like the line? Use the (often broken) "self-service" machine.

@jayphat: There are three in my zip code and 25 within 10 miles. Granted I live in a somewhat metropolitan area, but no matter where I go in Montgomery County there is a Post Office at least within a few blocks.

I'm not exactly complaining, I like the convenience (my mail gets almost anywhere within a day or two), but I can't see how this isn't wildly cost-prohibitive.

Interesting. The three closest post offices to my house are closing. For parking and safety reasons, I mainly use (and have my PO Box at) a larger one in a strip mall in a near suburb. So I guess we can blame me.

Bun of a sitch... the Atlanta airport post office is the most useful one in the whole damn city. I use it for all my Christmas mailings--but that's because it isn't crowded, which I assume is also the reason why it's on the kill list.

Screw it, I'll just use the kiosk.

I noticed that FL and CA have from my quick counting the most closing?

must suck to have such high unemployment and then have post offices close.

the only ones I see closing in NJ are in the ghetto, and I mean ghetto. Not a single place on that list is a place I'd like to visit ever.

@doctor_cos: Didn't say customer service... "Customer-serving" is differentiating between a routing center not open to the public versus one that actually serves individuals (regardless of how well or how fast).

@PsiCop: That's rough on people who want to get packages in the crap areas, though, since delivery isn't feasible and now they have to go that much farther to get their stuff.

One thing I'm sure has been discussed, but I haven't seen, is what happens to people who own PO boxes at those locations? Are they going to have to change their address or will the box be re-routed to another facility? Sounds terribly inconvenient either way. I know I'd be peeved if I had to open another and either drive many more miles to get my mail or send out new addresses to everyone (and print new letterhead, business cards, envelopes, etc).

@That One Caveman: Note, though, that this is only a little over 20% of the planned closures, so who knows how representative this sampling is.

I'm glad to see this. The post office provides a premium service - delivery to your door six days a week with service that, while we complain about it a lot, nearly matches their for-profit competitors at a fraction of the cost.

And what does the post office deliver, mostly? Junk mail. Premium delivery of something that irritates most people is a waste of resources.

I'm not advocating complete elimination of the USPS, but it either has to remake itself (like the Japanese model, for instance) or severely shrink itself.

They want to close the one in Faneuil Hall. Too bad for tourists

@humphrmi: I tried googling the Japanese postal office, but I wasn't even sure what I was looking for...care to elaborate on what the Japanese model is?

@Skankingmike:
yes, my lovely little hole-in-the-wall PO in Mount Eden is closing.
I'm about to cry.
I sent all my Mail Art in college there, knew the clerks by name and they always offered me new stamps for my packages.

I guess it is kind of in the ghetto-
but it was MY ghetto.

Addresses or zip codes would make this list more useful...I have no idea what or where "CHICAGO-FINANCE STATION N-FND STA" is.

@pecan 3.14159265:

I know that in the past few years, Japan Post shuttered TONS of redundant post offices. Also, they're one of the largest savings banks in the world (the Japanese save so much that consumer interest rates on savings are in the realm of thousandths of a percent APR.)

Is it clear whether these post offices that are being shuttered will continue in some way to provide automated service? I know in my former post office, there was an automated machine for stamps and one for packages. You weigh it, print off your sticker and put it in the slot. If it was fragile, you took it to a person and they put it in a different pile. I don't really need a full service post office, just a machine where I can by stamps (I have one thing, ONE thing! to mail).

@TinkishDelight:

...there's a post office in every town with a ZIP code because - that's what a ZIP code means. It means there's a post office there.

Larger towns with multiple ZIP codes, or at least multiple ZIP+4, have multiple post offices.

It's kind of like asking why there has to be corn in every corn flake in the cereal box...

@Laura Northrup:

OK.

@cash_da_pibble: One mans ghetto is another mans paradise?

I live in St. Louis and read a story that St. Louis wanted to list any possibilities so that all branches could be considered and given a fair shot. They don't plan to close all these, just want to look at them to make a fair and educated decision.

@pecan 3.14159265: I probably should have included the words "former" somewhere in that post, as they are now being broken up and privatized. But at one time the Japanese postal service was a post office, a bank, and an insurance company. You could literally go to the post office and make a deposit to your savings account (which the Japanese do very often, and take their personal savings very seriously) and buy a new life insurance policy while mailing a letter. It was highly profitable.

Old system I'm referring to: [en.wikipedia.org]

New divested, private postal service: [en.wikipedia.org]

@craptastico: eventually they will save some money though on labor. as other office become overstaffed from moving other staff there, they won't have to backfill retirement positions or hire replacements for people that quit. should anyone want to quit what is basically a close to lifetime guaranteed job in this economy.

@YouDidWhatNow?: Maybe it would be, if I had asked that.

Here in Oakland, CA, they are also removing many of the mailboxes off the street. This includes the one in front of my office. I called to complain and they quoted a survey that said there were less than 25 pieces of mail a day deposited in it.

@YouDidWhatNow?: I understand the whole concept behind the zip code. Problem is, is alot of these places are running well into the red, yet these outlying facilities with easy access to larger ones are still being kept open for nostalgias sake. It would take little to no effort to offload this work onto the larger facilities, and close down the smaller offices in these small towns. I'm just throwing the idea out there.

What is a finance station? Are those just the stamp machines inside other public buildings? What do they save by shutting those down? Just the cost of refilling them?

This move to me is indicative of another huge organization that is so poorly run & managed. The postal service makes bank, serious bank. & it's not that much cheaper to ship with them as it is with Fedex or UPS, DHL of course no longer standing.

They seem to have time and money to make commercials...which are never cheap. They also seem to like to raise prices on stamps on a fairly regular basis. Oh & penny stamps...are you kidding me ?

Hate to be a negative Nancy, but I put the Postal service right up there with the NYC MTA as being an irresponsible and a sorry @$$ excuse for what once were reputable, service providing agencies. Poo Poo this one !

@TinkishDelight:

Sorry TD - I was intending to reply to the OP, not you.

@Skankingmike:

indeed, that is what the Transient that lived behind the McDonalds Dumpster said so many a time.

@jayphat:

...I think that's exactly what they're doing...or at least trying to do.

I was just providing a literal answer to your question of why there's a PO in every town with a ZIP code. One doesn't happen without the other.

I am wondering now if towns that lose their PO will also lose their ZIP code or not...hmmm....

Not just closing down small towns, there's a lot of Big town post offices that aren't really needed but have high overhead due to location (NY, CA, ATL, etc).

There's one by my office in Chicago that's pretty busy when I go in there, yet it's on the list. wtf?

They should really close the ravenswood post office from what I hear. That place is truly hell on earth. They outta just bulldoze that place and start over.

@madrigal: Looks like a bunch of substations on Boston area campuses are under review too.

I'm not sure closing the Redondo Beach PO will help, considering I haven't seen an employee in it in the 3 years I've lived here. I figured it was closed and no one had gotten around to getting the fixtures out yet.

@mbz32190:

Several of the ones in the Baltimore area are in malls, too. The Towson Mall evidently has one (I forgot about it), and it's literally about 3 blocks away from the real Towson post office. Given that mall rent is probably pretty high, it's pretty stupid to have one there.

I agree with others - why in the mall? Why three towns at 1000 ppl each are not sharing?

Looking at the PDF, I see 5 in the Baltimore region; I think they're all malls.

What I find funny tho is that the Post Office doesn't seem to know the abbreviations for Kentucky (KY) or West Virginia (WV). I'm pretty sure they are the ones that decided them in the first place...

@harumph: Wyckoff Heights might be the worst post office in all of history, and that includes Soviet post offices.

@harumph: That said, if it's possible for you, the post office at Cadman Plaza is pretty much the nicest one in Brooklyn. I realize that that's not saying much, but it's not too bad.

I'm not from NYC, and when I went home not long ago to visit my mom, I went to what was once my local post office. The employees there must have thought I was crazy. I couldn't get over how clean, well-lit, and nicely serviced a post office that ISN'T IN BROOKLYN could be.

@FatLynn: warning: Wikipedia content.

Although its customer service centers are called post offices in regular speech, the USPS recognizes several types of postal facilities, including the following:
...
A finance unit, a station or branch that provides window services and accepts mail, but does not provide delivery.

@YouDidWhatNow?: I live in a town with 3 zip codes and there is only one post office. So, I don't believe that the theory of a post office for every zip code is correct.

Also, my parents live in a small town and while there is a zip code for the town- it is only for the local businesses. (Think one block main street here...tiny.) The residents have a different zip code that correspond to a larger city...which has the post office. You also have to use the larger city name, not the actual town they live in. If you use the town name, the mail gets lost even if you use the correct zip code.

@mbz32190: I noticed that it looks like a lot of mall locations as well, but they did list my local branch which is a stand alone PO that is constantly busy. If they close that, it sucks for me. The next one over is not that far away, but it won't be on my usual weekly drive to the library.