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point of order: the post office

I had to visit a US Post Office recently. After spending the year learning about operations management, process improvement, and organizational behavior, I must admit that the visit irked me on so many levels I could feel myself clamming up and needing to get out as fast as possible.

The thing is, I needed to mail my rent to Boston (from New York). This is probably the only part of my life that has not evolved into even the 20th century yet. I still pay rent by check and I still send it via the mail. In order to do this I needed two things: an envelope and a stamp.

Unable to find these things in single serving size at a deli (because why would I?), I set off to the Post Office. (Which, by the way is not conveniently located and keeps inconvenient hours). Imagine my surprise when I got there to discover A) no envelopes for sale (isn’t that kind of a natural COMPLEMENT (thanks Prof Collis) to selling postal services) and B) no easy way to get stamps. The line was 15 people deep, and I went to a machine where my only option was to buy 40 stamps. (Credit to the USPS 1 point for the “forever” stamp.)

Then off to Duane Reade to buy 80 (79 of which I don’t need) envelopes.

And then back in search of a blue mailbox.

Short point: postal mail sucks. The government should dissolve it, force everyone to go paperless, offer it as an uber premium service (or make FedEx pickup and manage the business), and be done with it as it is now.

Related posts:

  1. moving and the joys of purging
  2. class visits and recruiting
  3. penske FTW. so far, anyway.

July 9, 2009 at 1:00 pm | Filed Under general observations, new york city | Comments 

comments

  • MS
    Just out of curiosity - why didn't you recommend that market research be done for the services in demand, and the operations be streamlined accordingly ? (I mean, this question is born of my beef that too often many MBAs jump to a recommendation of selling out rather than staying with the mess and correcting it)

    Thanks and have a nice day !
  • Steven
    Not that I don't empathize, but the argument for a government mail service rests on its obligation to provide universal service to the country at what is theoretically below the market cost of the delivery - a position that can leave it somewhat hamstrung with being able to offer certain services comprable with private companies that can operate on a much more consolidated basis (something like the obligations of the military, where requirements neccesitate ignoring certain economic efficacies). I'll also say that most PO's I've been to do sell document envelopes and/or single postage-paid envelopes; unfortuneate that your's didn't. In any case, dissolving the USPS as a practical matter runs into the Constitutionally delegated power of the Congress over postal matters, and the fact that companies like FedEx and UPS are only even allowed to exist through a narrow monopoly exemption that is granted by the USPS itself.
  • I like that the most interesting comments I've ever gotten are on a post about the post office. :)

    @MS - I know your sentiment about MBAs but think it's probably an unfair generalization. I don't tend to err on the side of sell it, and I love solving a problem as much as the next guy. But I tend to think that the government probably shouldn't be in the operations business... that's what led to my interest in getting rid of the usps.

    @Steven - understand the legality. But why not challenge it? I wish my post office experience had been more pleasant, but really I just like ranting about things, so this probably made it sound worse than actually was.
  • Amal Dorai
    I, unlike you, am a huge fan of the US Postal Service. For 44 cents, they will come to your house, pick up your most-likely inconsequential piece of ephemera, and haul it to any other part of this vast country right to the doorstep of your addressee. Furthermore, their commitment to getting the mail to the destination is unparelleled -- once, a letter of ours on very thin paper got torn in half, and the part with the destination address was sent to the destination, the part with the return address back to the sender, each in an envelope apologizing for the mishap.

    I do agree that they should sell single envelopes and stamps -- they often have envelopes for priority mail, or mailing CDs, but not regular envelopes. One trick: they usually sell pre-stamped envelopes behind the counter, so ask for one of those if you just need one envelope and one stamp.
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