Whatever happened to the much needed 'stamp vending machines'

The U.S. Postal Disservice

Photo Courtesy of Etsy

Why is it you cannot go to the lobby of a U.S. Post Office and purchase a stamp after-hours? Well it seems the Postal Service decided to remove the stamp vending machines citing the expense required to repair and replace the antiquated machines. The Postal Service has attempted to quietly 'play it off' that changes in U.S. currency to prevent counterfeiting made it too costly to update machines to handle new bills, as well as a decline in first-class mail. Although the not-so-naive customer identifies it as a move to privatizing another once great service. Of course the elimination of stamp machines has come at a greater cost in convenience and loss of revenue generated by eliminating that convenience. The postal service came up with a plan to eliminate its 23,000 vending machines by 2010.

To this day, you still hear customers grumbling during 'after hours' stops to local Post Office lobbies, complaining about the absence of a stamp vending machine. Many are actually angry that when at the spur of the moment they want to make a quick run to the local Post Office after hours to mail a quick letter or birthday card only to find they now have to go to a 'convenience store' to buy a book of stamps, stand in line, fight the traffic, only to have to return to the Post Office to mail the letter because the Postal Service has not only removed the stamp machines, but have also removed the majority of the freestanding blue boxes where people could quickly mail letters. As one customer remarked, "It's like the U.S. Postal Service is purposely attempting to anger us so we become frustrated with the lack of convenience so that we are forced to turn to private retail businesses to pick up a stamp. It just seems the Postal Service should now be called the U.S. Postal Disservice! Why would a business want to turn customers away from a business model that worked so well at one time and is still needed and desired just as much today? It just doesn't make sense."    
This Article is From: The Postal Newsgroup
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