Announced yesterday, the US Postal Service (USPS) will stop delivering first class mail on Saturdays starting August 5th this year. What's first class mail? Letters, cards, magazines, catalogs, bills, flyers, etc.
As a home-based, small business owner, I find this disconcerting. I mail out a lot of packages on Saturday. There have been times where the mailbox didn't shut. USPS has said package delivery will continue on Saturday, but it's not clear to me if that includes First Class Packages or just Priority and Express only. Either way, they will not collect mail on Saturday.
Which means I will have to go to the post office every stinking Saturday to drop off packages. Assuming the post offices will still be open on Saturday. They better be; that's the only time of the week I can mail international packages.
Speaking of which, with the latest postage increase two weeks ago, mailing international packages just doubled in cost. Mailing to Canada used to cost $3.30 for a 3oz package. Now it's $7.35. The costs for United Kingdom and Australia went from $4.56 to $9.45. Yeah, that dried up my international business VERY quickly. Thanks for that.
The domestic rates increased too, but not enough for me to charge customers more for shipping. Even though it costs $0.05 more to mail a 3oz package, I can absorb that.
Anyway, I'm not thrilled about the change in Saturday deliveries. It may save the post office fuel and wages, but I can't be the only small business that depends on Saturday mail. I just hope my customers will be ok with slower delivery rates.
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