A few blocks away from my apartment, there’s a store that Yelp users describe as “dirty,” “disgusting,” “horrible,” and “saturated with bitterness.” Yet they are still in business, and probably will be for a long time to come. What type of establishment could have their customers routinely express such deep rooted frustration, and still get away with it? The local Post Office, of course. At some point, we have all probably thought about doing something like what Michael Richards‘ character Kramer tried to do on Seinfeld – get out of the system, permanently. In a famous exchange, when postal employee Newman asks him what he will do about his bills, cards, and letters, Kramer points out that he can use “e-mail, telephones, fax machines, FedEx, Telex, telegrams, and holograms.” And he’s right. For your everyday needs, there are now a wide variety of ways to communicate and conduct transactions. Few people actually want the bulk of the items that come through their mailbox these days. But as despised and problematic as it is, the Postal Service is one of the most important institutions in this country – it is essential to a functioning economy, and it is, thankfully, not going anywhere, any time soon. There have been plenty of loud declarations that Postal Service has failed and will be out of business shortly. But these arguments usually reveal how little people understand about what the Postal Service actually does – and how little they appreciate this institution’s amazing reach and scale. Handling over 160 billion pieces of mail in a year (40 percent of the world’s mail), the Postal Service provides universal coverage for accessing their services to the entire country for low, standardized prices. They make regular deliveries to remote islands and secluded areas that would not be worth the trouble for a private business. In rural and low-income regions where broadband isn’t commonly available, they provide a much-needed lifeline for communication. Most recently, Outbox, a start-up from Austin, Texas, has reignited the debate over the future of mail. Since their launch in San Francisco earlier this month, they have attracted a lot of excitement with their simple plan to allow people to have their physical mail picked up, scanned, and digitized for a five dollars a month. In reality, this may not be the only cost; they are reportedly exploring ways to bring the sketchy practices of targeted e-mail advertising to the physical world. Furthermore, their marketing reveals a very immature understanding of why the Postal Service — which they strangely refer to as “America’s oldest social network” — cannot simply be “recreated” by a few guys driving around in a Prius. A suggestion that often comes up is to just dismantle the Postal Service and have everyone switch to using private services like FedEx, UPS, and DHL. The people making these arguments are probably unaware that these companies are deeply reliant on the Postal Service for many of their everyday functions – comparatively, they do not come close to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest