posted on July 22, 2000 06:42:58 PM new
Well, isn't that enough to make you mad?
I did wonder when the mouse pads, stationery, phone cards, etc, appeared for sale at the P.O. If I were a person who bought phone cards, I probably would buy them from the P.O. (I don't though- we have 2 lines & both of us have cell phones as well.) But as for the rest of that stuff, does anyone out there buy it? I never have. Have you guys?
It's hard enough to make sales as it is--I sure hope they don't up the rates again too soon.
posted on July 22, 2000 10:43:30 PM new
As far as the mouse pads, stationery, phone cards, etc, I have seen them. The end up in a bid 75% off bin at my post office. No one buys them. That was one of the yanks this reporter pointed out. The post office says they make extra money on all these added extras when in fact they lose money on it. $85 million to be exact.
I especially like the huge amount of money they sink into advertising. The spokesperson for USPS says it is to get ahead of the competition. I can see as far as the packages go but the USPS pretty much has the corner stone on first class mail. That was one of the facts John Stossel was trying to point out.
"Consider the significant business advantages the USPS enjoys over its competitors: it is exempt from paying state and federal taxes; can borrow money at discounted interest rates; and does not even have to pay parking tickets — a considerable expense for which other deliverers must factor into annual budgets."
Yet the USPS says they need to raise the rates again. It's a big catch 22.
I think it is all those online auction sellers that are turning priority boxes inside out and filing phony insurance claims.
posted on July 23, 2000 12:00:56 AM new
Betcha' don't know that the postal service keeps being required to contibute to the national budget, even though the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 charged them with running an independent agency without tax subsidy. The last congressional hit that I remember was right at $5 billion dollars. Happens most every year.
Too, though they may lose in some ventures, they've gained tremendous revenues through advertizing overall. You won't likely see much advertising for 1st Class Mail, true, but that's not where the operating funds are obtained. It costs a lot to get grannie's letter out to the farm in the middle of the state of Kansas. NOBODY else wants to give universal first class delivery service as they know it's a loser.
Yet so much is made of the 'monopoly'.
The bucks are in packages, fast delivery services, and world wide (Global) delivery. It's in those areas that the USPS competes. And they must to stay alive. They could not maintain the non tax dependency by depending on 1st class mail delivery service.
