Post Office To Close 3,700 Locations Nationwide To Close Massive Deficits

The US Postal Service is closing 3,700 locations nationwide in an effort to close massive deficits due to steadily declining use of the mail service for delivering things like bills and payments and advertisements. Many of the locations closing have limited revenues from sales or usage; they would be consolidated or eliminated.

Most of the post offices being studied for closure have so little foot traffic that workers average less than two hours of work per day and average sales are less than $50 a day, according to Postal Service spokeswoman Sue Brennan. The closings are expected to begin within the next four to six months, most likely in January.

Donahoe estimated that the savings from the closings could be as much as $200 million.

The closings could cost the jobs of about 3,000 postmasters, 500 supervisors and another 500 to 1,000 clerks, said Dean Granholm, vice president of delivery and post office operations. The Postal Service has about 574,000 employees.

The list released Tuesday has 3,653 facilities named:

-- Some 3,061 post offices with less than $27,500 in annual revenue, or 2 hours of workload daily

-- 385 post offices with less than $600,000 in annual revenue, and 5 or more postal service locations, such as stamp kiosks, within two miles.

-- 188 post offices with less than $1 million in annual revenue, and 5 or more postal service locations within 0.5 mile.

-- 19 offices currently suspended.

To fill the gap, more than 2,500 so-called "village post offices" may be created in grocery and convenience stores in the next year, with the first round to be announced this fall, Grahholm said.

The village post office concept is outlined here. For New Jersey, there's about 50 locations being studied for closure, including the Warren Point location in Fair Lawn. There are significantly more closures in New York. 18 locations would be closed in Connecticut.

This would be only one part of a longer term strategy to reduce costs and reflect reduced mailings; reduced operating schedules would likely be enacted, reducing mail delivery on Saturdays, and perhaps at least one other day during the week.

Since more business is being conducted online, the post office has to adjust to the new business reality.