The first Christmas card arrived in the mail slot at my house earlier this week. It was a photo-greeting card from an old friend who lives in Ohio. He and his wife posed in playful stances with their two grown children, their spouses and a new grandbaby.
They could have sent the card by e-mail, but it wouldn't have been the same. I would have glanced at it quickly and moved on. Currently, it is on my kitchen counter. When I receive more cards and photos, I will post them on the louvered doors in the dining room I use to display each year's seasonal greetings.
The news this week is that the U.S. Postal Services is making plans to reduce service. Communication and shipping methods have been evolving for decades and the post office has seen its market share erode into oceans of red ink.
A Long Island resident interviewed on National Public Radio this week said that she considered her post office box a nuisance receptacle for junk mail. A pharmacist in Montana said his elderly clients in far-flung communities rely totally on the U.S. mail service for their prescriptions.
I grew up on rural route one, southeast of Canton, Kans. 67428. The daily county seat newspaper never reached the local post office in time for rural delivery route departures. It always arrived in our mailbox a day late. It didn't get read any less.
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In my Webster Groves office, daily mail service is still an integral part of business operations. Bills go out. Checks arrive. Some press releases and letters still arrive by mail. When Carol, our regular carrier is on vacation, our service level dips a bit too.
If mail service slows, there will be a slight delay in cash flow - the bill may take a day longer to reach the client. The return check may take a day more to arrive. But we can weather that change.
Mail service, despite its detractors, is dependable. That needs to stay the same. Box pickup frequencies, especially near the end of business days, are important if business use is to remain high.
Magazines and periodicals will take a bigger hit. But then again, do I read my Time Magazine or my Kiplinger Newsletter the day it arrives? Usually not. Am I likely to cancel my mailed subscriptions and read those publications online? No, but some readers who haven't already, will make that transition. I prefer the leisurely pace of content on paper. My eyes and mind are programmed to absorb a lot more on paper than from pixels on a screen.
Can the U.S. Mail compete in the sea of communication changes? We might look at models from other countries to get ideas. German post offices reinvented themselves a couple of decades ago after reunification of East and West christmas flowers germany . They have maintained six day home delivery and offer a variety of services including banking and mobile phones.
I wish that in 2012, political parties would have to pay a surcharge to use my mailbox for their usual election deluge of quarter-truths and outright falsehoods.
For charities, the mail is an important tool. I regard it with more sympathy than I do those agencies that pay a commission for professional phone solicitors. I very rarely respond to e-mail requests.
Meanwhile, I will look for those christmas flowers germany blog cards among the solicitations for year-end donations that stuff my mailbox. I intend to write my traditional season's greetings letter and mail it with cards in time for Christmas.
Buy stamps. Say hello to your mail carrier. It will be a challenging new year for the people who deliver our mail.
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