The United States Postal Service has been struggling to make money for some time now, but ho! What is that yonder, in the distance? Could it be a knight in shining armor, riding in to save this damsel in distress? And what is the male version of a damsel? Anyway, Amazon is rolling out Sunday package delivery and it’s granted USPS the contract to carry it out.

The first Sunday deliveries started heading out to customers in New York and Los Angeles, but it won’t end there, Amazon said. The partnership with the USPS is set to extend service to “a large portion of the U.S. population” next year, says Amazon. Up soon: Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix, according to the Associated Press.

It won’t cost customers anything additional to deliver on Sunday, but Amazon Prime members — who get free two-day shipping on lots of items — will likely be tickled extra pink with the ability to get packages on a weekend.

“For Prime members, it’s free, for non-Prime members, it’s like any other delivery day of the week,” said Dave Clark, vice president of worldwide operations and customer service at Amazon.

The two groups are keeping mum on the financial terms of the deal, but there’s likely a tidy sum involved for the cash-poor USPS. The agency is not funded by the government, after all, and lost $16 billion last year. So far this year it stands to lose another $6 billion, so any extra pennies dropping in its coffers will help.

It’s kind of a perfect situation for the USPS, which lost money because not as many people send letters through the mail. But what do we get a lot of through the mail? Stuff we’ve ordered online on sites like Amazon — which you can now get on a Sunday.

US Postal Service wins Amazon Sunday deliveries [Associated Press]

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