More changes are coming to the U.S Postal Service. They announced an end to mail collection and delivery on Saturdays. The plan is expected to save $2 billion dollars a year, but some local business owners say it’s going to end up hurting them in the long haul.
Joy Murphy has been making personalized Christmas stockings for 18 years now.
She ships stockings all over the world, “For 18 years, I’ve only shipped with the postal service.
Until now she has never had any complaints, but the U.S Postal Service announced on Wednesday, February 06, 2013 that they will stop collecting and delivering on Saturday to help save money.
“This is why we've taken aggressive steps to reduce our costs and why we've been so vocal about passing postal reform legislation,” says Patrick Donahoe, postmaster general and CEO of the postal service.
Joy says it’s going to affect her customer service, “More packages, but less days, how's that going to affect my customer service from the postal service and then how does that affect my customer service that I’m going to give my customers?”
Aunt Joy Personalized Christmas Stockings is a seasonal business. With the post office having the day off she’s going to have to rearrange how she does her production.
"If Christmas is like Monday or Tuesday, Saturday delivery is huge for any kind of a holiday where a business relies on the post office to get their packages there and if they're not going to ship them on Saturday well then that changes everything,” says Joy.
Packages will still be delivered on Saturday, but Joy’s question is, what’s classified as a package, “Is it a small package? Is a padded envelope considered a package?”
Joy thinks it’s only going to cost her more in the end, “The postal service is cutting back services and they're raising my rates so how do I still make a profit?"
The new delivery schedule is expected to start the first week of August. Mail being addressed to PO Boxes will continue to be delivered on Saturdays.