Netflix Is Fine With No Saturday Mail Delivery; Amazon, Not So Much

When we first wrote about the US Postal Service’s plan to put an end to Saturday deliveries, only 35% of the 7,000 readers polled thought it would be a hassle to their way of life. However, many commenters wanted to know what this would mean for deliveries of their precious Netflix DVDs. Yesterday, they got their answer.

Explains a VP for the video delivery service, who you know is the guy that’s been holding onto that copy of Battle Royale you’ve been waiting for:

A well-functioning Postal Service, positioned over the long haul to meet changing customer and consumer demand, is more important than maintaining current delivery frequency.

The folks at internet retail behemoth Amazon.com held a slightly different opinion:

Ceasing Saturday deliveries would be much worse for our rural customers, who simply would not be able to receive parcels on Saturday because there are no alternatives.

And then there’s the not-at-all-greedy pharmacists at CVS Caremark, which shipped over 50 million prescription by mail. The Caremarkers say that these changes, will — and this really, honestly, swear-to-god breaks their hearts — probably have to raise prices to their customers.

The ultimate decision on whether or not to transition to a 5-day delivery schedule for the USPS is still wrapped up in a several layers of red tape, giving all of the above companies plenty of time to change their minds many times over.

Major online retailers split on plan to cut Saturday mail [WashingtonPost]

Netflix Backs U.S. Postal Service Saturday Delivery Cut [BusinessWeek]

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