Post Office close for lunch?

[Deb]

Had a conversation with someone today that started with them asking me if I knew what time our local post office closed for lunch. I've never heard of such a thing. To be fair, most of the post offices I've been two have a minimum of two people working the window, so I would understand if a small rural post office needed to close to allow the only employee working a break. But your average post office with two or more windows typically open? Isn't "running to the post office " one of those errands people typically do during lunch breaks?

 

[Marrila]

Had a conversation with someone today that started with them asking me if I knew what time our local post office closed for lunch. I've never heard of such a thing. To be fair, most of the post offices I've been two have a minimum of two people working the window, so I would understand if a small rural post office needed to close to allow the only employee working a break. But your average post office with two or more windows typically open? Isn't "running to the post office " one of those errands people typically do during lunch breaks?

Many businesses are struggling to keep help and shifts covered. Our Target pharmacy is closed for lunch temporarily.
I'm not surprised.

 

[kdonnel]

The post office has so many small locations that many are very lightly staffed. There are two very close to me.

One is physically much smaller than the other.

The smallest one has the retail portion open throughout the day and is also open for a short period on Saturday, while the larger one is closed from 11:30am to 12:15pm M-F and is not open on Saturday.

It has been this way for the 17 years I have lived in this area.

 

[Deb]

Many businesses are struggling to keep help and shifts covered. Our Target pharmacy is closed for lunch temporarily.
I'm not surprised.

this is not a post covid thing. They said this has always been the norm

 

[kdonnel]

Closing a post office is not an easy task.

Back in 2010 the USPS was directed by Congress to scale back hours instead of closing locations as a cost saving measure.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

All the post offices I know of close for lunch. Post covid all the pharmacies around here (Philly) close for lunch at CVS and other locations.

 

[tvguy]

Must be office specific. None of the Post Offices here close for lunch. Since Post Offices started doing delivery for Amazon and other parcel companies, the front counter may be closed but the Post Office is even staffed on Sunday.

 

[MillauFr]

The post office really needs to cut back on spending so they can avoid having to be bailed out. Not sure why more branches haven't been closed, mail delivery reduced, and prices increased.

 

[Deb]

The post office really needs to cut back on spending so they can avoid having to be bailed out. Not sure why more branches haven't been closed, mail delivery reduced, and prices increased.

not what I was asking about

 

[RoseColored97]

Many businesses are struggling to keep help and shifts covered. Our Target pharmacy is closed for lunch temporarily.
I'm not surprised.

This is a nationwide thing I think. Walgreens and CVS pharmacy inside Target both close for lunchbreaks. I thought it was interesting as well because there are always multiple technicians, but perhaps only one pharmacist that would be available for questions/concerns when picking up medication.

 

[RF536]

I think it is the smaller towns. I live in a town of about 1200 and our post office closes between 11 and 12 everyday for lunch. The next town over has a population of about 5K and their post office doesn't close for lunch.

 

[georgina]

Had never seen this when we lived In Suburban Pittsburgh. There were several post offices close to us and all well staffed. Since moving to Alexandria, VA, which is not a very small city, have managed to go to both the post office and CVS pharmacy when they closed for lunch. They don’t post their hours online and I never seem to remember when they close!

 

[disneychrista]

4 of the 7 post offices in my greater area close one hour for lunch and one other one is only open from 10 - 2.

 

[QueenIsabella]

When we lived rural, the post office closed for lunch. They had more than one employee who could/would handle customers, but typically had one window open.

When we lived in a city of ~28,000 people, they wouldn't close for lunch. Now, we live in a bigger city with multiple post offices, none of them close for lunch as far as I know (I typically go to only one branch). I suspect it's a decision made based on volume, number of employees, that sort of thing. The two bigger cities I've lived in, they also had 24-hour access to self-service--weighing and mailing packages, buying stamps, and the like. I don't recall that back when we lived rural, but they may have added it since we left.

 

[tvguy]

The post office really needs to cut back on spending so they can avoid having to be bailed out. Not sure why more branches haven't been closed, mail delivery reduced, and prices increased.

Well they did increase postage prices in July. They have expanded delivery to Sunday delivery under an agreement with Amazon because they make money on it. And they were going to close an in store grocery store branch here, but then did an audit and found it was making money too. So there is no simple solution. And some have called for them to raise prices for bulk rate (read that as junk mail) but that makes money too.

 

[disneychrista]

Well they did increase postage prices in July.

And are increasing again on January 22nd to $0.63

 

[MillauFr]

not what I was asking about

But it is the reason that post offices are closed at lunch. The number of customers using their services is collapsing and causing a need to cut back service hours.

 

[Deb]

But it is the reason that post offices are closed at lunch. The number of customers using their services is collapsing and causing a need to cut back service hours.

not when the person who I was having the conversation with told me it's always been that way at the post offices in her experience. As in 20 plus years

 

[tvguy]

not when the person who I was having the conversation with told me it's always been that way at the post offices in her experience. As in 20 plus years

Interesting for sure. Something I have never seen here.

 

[MillauFr]

not when the person who I was having the conversation with told me it's always been that way at the post offices in her experience. As in 20 plus years

That branch should probably be closed. The post office needs to stream line operations and boost profits. They should take some lessons from Disney and install Postal + lanes so you can skip lines.