Post Office Consolidations Hurt Small Businesses
Thank you for your insightful article [“You’ve Got Mail,” November 10, 2011] on the post office and its financial woes (and see this week’s related story, “Postmark Hartford“). Not only is the U.S. Postal Service looking to save money by closing smaller post offices, it is also looking to save money by closing and moving a number of its distribution centers.
One center targeted is the first-class mail distribution center in Springfield.
The powers that be would like to move portions of this operation to Hartford, Albany and/or Worcester. The ramifications of this move may not be significant to individuals who rely less on the post office than in the past. However, for small businesses the change would have a significant impact.
I work for a small business that does business with many small- to large-size businesses as well as farmers throughout the Northeast. We rely on the efficiency of the post office to send and receive invoices and checks as well as documents that we cannot be sure would be secure through electronic means.
For the most part, we can be sure that mail posted one day will be received the next day if its destination is within the state (and often mail sent to neighboring states is delivered the next day, too!). If first-class mail no longer goes through Springfield, our mail will be delayed by at least one day or more if it goes out of state. The Post Office service standard for out-of-state mail is two days. That’s if all goes well in the processing.
I see long-term ramifications of this change bringing more delays in mail processing, a lowering of service standards, and a further decrease in mail volume for the Post Office. Businesses that have been resisting invoicing via fax or e-mail and payment via credit card or other electronic means will start to move in that direction in order to speed up the cash flow process. This will reduce revenue for the post office even further.
The post office says employees will be moved with the operation. However, for many who have spouses that work, extended families and elderly parents who need care, relocation is not an option. The loss of jobs will be significant.
And as you pointed out in your article, the financial woes of the Post Office can be solved in other ways. There was a public meeting on November 8 in Springfield where the Post Office announced its intention to move first-class mail distribution service out of Springfield. The public has 15 days to bring their comments before the Postal Service. If Western Mass. doesn’t make a lot of noise about this, we will lose the quality of service we have come to rely on from the Post Office.
Pauline Moore
South Hadley
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Did Alcohol Contribute to Violence?
With Stephanie Kraft’s article in the Nov. 10 Advocate about the Gregory-Naventi case [“Whose Crime Was It, Anyway?“], we find five photographs of the couple, in three of which one or the other is holding a beer. In the article we read: “On the evening of February 26, Gregory and a few of his friends had been out drinking in Westfield. Naventi had been out drinking as well.”
While we don’t know whether alcohol had impaired reasoning powers and contributed to the violence in this particular case, perhaps other new drinkers might take pause. If the drinking mentioned in the article took place in bars, I would hope that bartenders would take note and be even more careful about their responsibilities.
Don Herold
Northampton
