Results tagged “stamps”

The post office is a storefront that we'd never expect to see shut down, but because of recent hard times the U.S. Postal Service is dealing with a $7 billion potential loss this fiscal year. Not even the 2-cent price increase for stamps can save the day. Curse you, online bill pay (shaking fist!). Thousands of post offices nationwide are getting the once over, even Seattle's Federal Station, which is one of six Washington offices on the list of 700 expected to close.

We remember when it cost 29 cents to mail a letter. Bless online bill pay, because starting today the USPS is jacking up (albeit by only two cents) the price of a first-class stamp to 44 cents. Is it in poor taste to have mailed holiday cards a wee bit early?

The other day we popped into the Broadway post office looking for some stamps. But the stamp vending machine was gone, so we had to stand in a 12-person line to buy $1-ish of stamps. We hear that--in addition to uprooting friendly neighborhood mailboxes--the USPS is saving money by removing stamp vending machines from post offices across Washington. You can buy stamps at USPS.com, and they will mail them to you. Sometimes we hate this stupid new online world. We can still get stamps on a whim at Wells Fargo ATMs--maybe they'll move into delivering mail too. God knows the USPS hasn't impressed us there, either.