I went to my local post office on my lunch hour and was in and out in less than 5 minutes.

[hack89]

49. A 28% decline in first class mail since 2002

with no end in sight.

Parcel service helps but they cannot compete with UPS or Fedex - they can't control their costs likes a private business can.

While the Postal Service’s short-term financial problems are largely a function of a 2006 congressional requirement to pre-fund its pension plans decades ahead of time, the reality is that the situation from here will only get worse. As revenue declines, Congress prohibits the USPS from closing post offices, three-quarters of which don’t pay their own way. And about 1.4 million addresses are added each year, which mail carriers need to visit daily. Costs up, revenues down — a bad formula indeed.

A 2009 report in the Cato Journal suggested that the cost to deliver a piece of mail had already exceeded 40 cents on shrinking volumes. But the declines will only get worse. Every time someone decides to stop receiving a paper bill, 24 pieces of First Class mail per year disappear forever (the bill, and the payment, each 12 times per year). When you agree to receive notices electronically from your credit card company or health plan, you often put an end to dozens more pieces of mail.

While the USPS has actually done a credible job of cost cutting, reducing its operating budget by $6 billion in response to the recession of 2008, there is no way cost cutting alone will cover another 30% decline in First Class mail over the coming decade or so. (That would knock out another $10 billion, or about 15%, of the Postal Service’s top line).

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/02/15/first-class-mail-is-doomed-get-over-it/