Politics & Government

Bloomingdale Patch Postal Stations to Remain Open

Due to budget constraints, the U.S. Postal Service will look at closing some postal stations in Florida, but area postal stations dodged the bullet.

Budget cuts combined with changing habits of customers is forcing the U.S. Postal Service to look at closing 3,700 of its 32,000 retail postal stations, announced the postal service in a press release today.

However, the retail offices in Bloomingdale, Valrico, Brandon and Riverview aren't among those to be reviewed for possible closure.

According to the release, as more customers choose to conduct their postal business online, on their smart phones and at their favorite shopping destinations, the need for the U.S. Postal Service to maintain all of its postal stations has diminished.

Find out what's happening in Bloomingdale-Riverviewwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The postal service currently maintains the largest retail network in the country.

As a result, the U.S. Postal Service announced today that it will close 3,700 offices including post offices on Clearwater Beach, downtown Brooksville and downtown Winter Garden.

Find out what's happening in Bloomingdale-Riverviewwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

However, the Postal Service will introduce a retail-replacement option for affected communities around the nation.

“Today, more than 35 percent of the Postal Service’s retail revenue comes from expanded access locations such as grocery stores, drug stores, office supply stores, retail chains, self-service kiosks, ATMs and usps.com, open 24/7,” said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. “Our customer’s habits have made it clear that they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business.”

For communities currently without a postal retail office and for communities affected by these retail optimization efforts, the Postal Service introduced the Village Post Office as a potential replacement option. Village Post Offices would be operated by local businesses, such as pharmacies, grocery stores and other appropriate retailers, and would offer popular postal products and services such as stamps and flat-rate packaging.

“By working with third-party retailers, we’re creating easier, more convenient access to our products and services when and where our customers want them,” Donahoe said. “The Village Post Office will offer another way for us to meet our customers’ needs.”

With 32,000 postal retail offices and more than 70,000 third-party retailers — Approved Postal Providers — selling postage stamps and providing expanded access to other postal products and services, customers today have about 100,000 locations across the nation where they can do business with the Postal Service.

“The Postal Service of the future will be smaller, leaner and more competitive and it will continue to drive commerce, serve communities and deliver value,” Donahoe added.

The list of offices being studied and additional information, can be found at http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/expandedaccess/welcome.htm.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here