The downtown post office in Providence looks pretty cool. Don't know when it was built, but it has personality. One thing it's got going for it.
Only has service from 8-2 on weekdays, though. Go in after 2PM with an already stamped letter and you can send it, but if you need any packaging and/or additional postage you're out of luck. According to a sign this started in April 2020. So cuts and changes they made during the almighty pandemic? No apparent plans to change back.
2 comments:
It's interesting you've noticed this as we've seen a similar situation at our bank. Before the lockdowns the local branch was always busy and there were customer service reps coming out of the woodwork. That often felt like a bit much but there were always lots of tellers too. As of the past two years the bank has no CSRs, sometimes only one teller and never more than two, and since the manager travels between multiple branches, he's only rarely available for customers.
The US postal service has legal obligations to deliver mail in a reasonable time and at a specific price set by the government. It all worked very well for many decades but nobody ever expected, or planned for, email, UPS, FedEx, Amazon, and dozens more delivery companies. What isn't written into law is to keep the post offices fully staffed over the course of at least an eight hour day.
The Canadian version has no separate buildings, just annexes in drug stores and the employees are paid minimum wage. Working for the post office was once one of the best jobs in the country and the post offices themselves were always great. It would be nice if they changed back.
Yeah, what can I say about banks? The bank I go into most often to deposit checks always has a teller at the counter. That's it, just one. Other people may be floating around, but they won't help out with the basic banking stuff. I've heard that banks want to discourage in-person banking, and I never really believed it before, but it's becoming a more credible theory.
Honestly the self-sabotage is pretty weird. FedEx, UPS, etc. exist and have taken a certain percentage of the market. The Post Office could at least aim to keep their branches open. But that honestly doesn't seem to be a big priority for them.
Weird that the Canadian POs don't have their own buildings. Historically they did. Pretty grand ones, too. They seem to have given those up on the assumption that their service isn't really needed or for the most part wanted. It's a strange way of tearing themselves down.
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