UPDATE 1:45pm
The leader of thousands of rural mail employees says she’s worried about a U.S. Post Office proposal that could close many small town post offices. The national postal officials say they need to make cuts to reduce red ink. The postal service lost eight billion dollars last year.
Cindy Opalek is the president of the Michigan Rural Letter Carriers Association. She says closing small town post offices will hurt rural communities.
“The people who work there get a little more connected…a little more bonded with the people that they serve. That will be a shame if they lose that. Does the (U.S.) Post Office care? I couldn’t tell you."
ORIGINAL POST: 1:05pm
The U.S. Postal Service has released a list of 62 Post Offices in Michigan that they're studying for closure.
The potential closures could affect smaller cities like Kingsford, Baron City, and North Star. And they could also affect bigger cities like Grand Rapids, Detroit, and Lansing.
In a statement, Postmaster General Patrick Donahue said closed offices could be replaced by "expanded access locations" - similar to how some pharmacies are now located in your grocery store:
“Today, more than 35 percent of the Postal Service’s retail revenue comes from expanded access locations such as grocery stores, drug stores, office supply stores, retail chains, self-service kiosks, ATMs and usps.com, open 24/7. Our customer’s habits have made it clear that they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business.”
The U.S. Postal Service currently operates 32,000 retail offices (the largest retail network in the country). It's studying the potential closure of 3,700 offices.
The USPS suffered $8.5 billion in losses in 2010.
Is your city on this list? How would you feel if your local post office was closed?
