Saturday Mail At Risk

There’s still some talk going around about saving money for the Postal Service by ending mail delivery on Saturdays. I’m starting to panic a bit about this one. Here we are, surrounded by nothing but green space, with no way for the mail to get in or out over a whole weekend. We could be totally isolated except for e-mail, text messaging, cell phones, Facebook, blogging, MySpace, Twitter, fax, Skype and home phones. It’s going to be tough on all of us.

I did a bit of research to see what critical pieces of Saturday mail might have to wait until Monday. The past two Saturdays were fairly typical mail days. Here’s what showed up in our mailbox: two flyers from stores we visit once a decade, three “last chance” notices for Medicare supplemental insurance, 20% off at Bed, Bath & Beyond, coupons for Office Depot, nine multi-page catalogs, two “the end is near” notices from the Republican National Committee and one reminder to fill out our census form.

I now see the Saturday mail problem from a different perspective. Normally, I can sort through the mail as I walk down the driveway and then drop 95% in the recycle bin when I reach the garage. Monday is trash day in our neighborhood so on Monday morning all that junk mail from Saturday is gone. If the junk mail doesn’t come until Monday because of the Saturday cut back, I’ll miss the trash pick up and have to hold the mail for a whole week.

But the issue that really tugs at your heart strings regarding Saturday mail was this line in a recent news article. “The loss of Saturday delivery would deal a blow to the biggest postal clients, companies that mail ads to consumers.” Maybe we should give up Friday mail too….

A. Reader