The Postal Service is Going Out of Business

Don't panic. I imagine that the USPS will be around for a very long time. However, if they were not run by the government but were, say, a privately held company, they would have been slashing their prices and liquidating their inventory last century. Don't believe me? Imagine for a moment that the Postal Service was a franchise that is basically selling one product - postage. Then ask yourself the following questions.

1. If you no longer needed as much of this product as you did 12 years ago, would you pay more for it? The price of a regular first class stamp has increased 40% since 1999, but their sales have decreased by almost the same percentage.
2. Would you do business with a company that lost over $8 billion two years in a row? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service)
3. If you went to a store to buy something, how long would you wait in line before you went somewhere else? What if you saw the employees were moving slowly or standing around?
4. If you were treated rudely by a store employee, would you go back? Would you even go to a store that already had a bad reputation for rude employees, knowing that neither the manager or the owner planned to ever do anything about it, which means you have no one to complain to for receiving poor customer service?
• Please note: I realize that not all employees at every single post office are rude or slow. However, in all of my experiences at all of the post offices I've ever been to in my life, I can honestly say that only once has an employee smiled at me, and that was when I was getting my passport. You'd think they worked on commission. On a side note, can someone please explain to me what passports have to do with postage?
5. Would you purchase this product on-line if it took longer than going to the store to pick it up?

Don't get me wrong. I use the US Postal Service on a regular basis (what choice do I have?) I also understand that there are reasons for the declining sales that are out of their control, but that isn't different than what every other business goes through. Furthermore, I understand that there are a lot of federal regulations (i.e. personnel benefits) that they have to adhere to that they could change if they were a privately held company.  I'm just playing a "what-if" scenario in my head that says, "What if the USPS continued doing things exactly like they are now, but were just a regular company?" My guess is that our kids would be saying, "What's a stamp?"

Just a reminder that the price of a First Class stamp will go up one cent to 45 cents on January 22, 2012.  Postcards will be 32 cents, a 3 cent increase.

Jennifer Simons is the owner of Girl Monday, a virtual assistant and consulting business in Sioux Falls, SD.