USPS for Banking and Booze ?

[SubLGT]

Banking and booze could save the U.S. Postal Service from the brink, experts say

“Postal banking is an elegant solution that would provide the USPS upwards of $9 billion a year in revenue and would address the high cost of being poor in America,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said.

www.nbcnews.com

FedEx and UPS are currently allowed to ship wine, beer and spirits, but because of Prohibition-era legislation, the Postal Service is not.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Postal Service could make an additional $50 million a year if it were to be able to ship alcohol.

Online alcohol sales have seen exponential growth in recent years. According to an IBISWorld report, the online beer, wine and liquor industry in the United States is a $1.2 billion business, growing at a rate of 8 percent a year.

Postal banking, he said, is among the new services the post office of the 21st century could — and should — provide. It would include basic banking services, including check cashing, providing low- or no-fee checking accounts, installing low-fee ATM machines, and providing wire transfer and bill payment services.

“Postal banking is a win-win solution: It can help the post office’s bottom line and serve millions of Americans that are currently underbanked and unbanked,” Brooks said, referring to the more than 30 million Americans who do not have sufficient access to mainstream financial services or who have no bank accounts at all, often because of the fees associated with traditional commercial banking.

Postal banking is not a new concept. Banking was part of the menu of services the post office offered for decades, beginning in 1910 when Congress established the Postal Savings System to encourage people to put their money in financial services. By 1947, the postal banking system had $3.4 billion in deposits. But in the 1960s, interest in the program waned when commercial banks started offering higher interest rates, and in 1967 postal banking was phased out.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

People ship it anyway and don't tell them alcohol is in it

 

[PimTac]

The liquor idea is good since the others can do it. As for the banking idea, it’s a day late and dollar short. There are so many options out there now for consumers.

 

[Dave9]

Heh, turn postal service into a bank. The evolution of all this is just make them a payday loan place that pays you in alcohol and is a motel so you can sleep it off. Kidding aside, it does make sense to allow alcohol shipments if their competitors can.

What is really needed is still the same, stop giving discounts to amazon and China. Some argue amazon is keeping them afloat but that's like saying a heroin dealer keeps junkies afloat. So yeah, let's have USPS sell heroin too.

 

[Spartanfool]

Only licensed commercial shippers are allowed to ship alcohol via UPS and FedEx. In most states, it must be between two licensed commercial businesses (wholesale to retail store, and similar). Most states do not allow alcohol shipments to individual consumers. A couple states allow direct distillery to consumer sales, but only within the state. YMMV.

Beer and wine are handled differently.

 

[BISCUT]

Nothing will fix the USPS until they fix the culture starting with the top working down. They are a true doctrine in failure of a large government entity. Start with standard Saturday delivery. Largely useless to the majority of Americans. Offer Saturday delivery as an ala carte service. That would save millions. And nobody needs to be laid off...through atrition end it.

The sweetheart deals for nearly free shipping to Amazon? Renegotiate like you are a business that the price matters. Not the political favors. That right there solves a hefty portion of the issues.

 

[Wolf359]

Nothing will fix the USPS until they fix the culture starting with the top working down. They are a true doctrine in failure of a large government entity. Start with standard Saturday delivery. Largely useless to the majority of Americans. Offer Saturday delivery as an ala carte service. That would save millions. And nobody needs to be laid off...through atrition end it.

The sweetheart deals for nearly free shipping to Amazon? Renegotiate like you are a business that the price matters. Not the political favors. That right there solves a hefty portion of the issues.

Nothing is ever that simple. They are an independent agency that have to abide by laws that Congress set up although they're not funded by Congress. Every time they try to get rid of Saturday delivery, there's a big cry from Congress and they can't do it. Amazon already has their own delivery service, if you raise the price more, they would just increase their delivery fleet. Right now it's just a little cheaper for the USPS to do it, they're not free to raise prices to whatever they like.

Their problem isn't too many employees, it's too little volume.

 

[BISCUT]

Nothing is ever that simple. They are an independent agency that have to abide by laws that Congress set up although they're not funded by Congress. Every time they try to get rid of Saturday delivery, there's a big cry from Congress and they can't do it. Amazon already has their own delivery service, if you raise the price more, they would just increase their delivery fleet. Right now it's just a little cheaper for the USPS to do it, they're not free to raise prices to whatever they like.

Their problem isn't too many employees, it's too little volume.

Is that not a contrapositive? Independent BUT....they are not independent. They are part of a political machine. You saw it used as a blunt instrument in the 2020 election.

 

[Wolf359]

Is that not a contrapositive? Independent BUT....they are not independent. They are part of a political machine. You saw it used as a blunt instrument in the 2020 election.

They are independent in the sense that their budget doesn't come from Congress. But as a government agency, they do enjoy certain benefits but their hands also get tied by Congress on what they can do. So your solutions sound great on paper, but you have to get the approval of Congress to do it so it's pointless to think you can just spout off a bunch of easy solutions and actually expect them to get passed.

The head of the agency is actually appointed by the board of governors who are nominated by the President. When you stack them, you can get them to vote for whoever you like. There's actually a few vacancies now so it could be stacked the other way and the current guy could get kicked out. That could still happen, just hasn't happened yet.

 

[PandaBear]

You cannot charge fix rate and make a profit in UPS / FedEx, but you are mandated to do so in USPS. You are not guaranteed 3 days for first class to every address with daily delivery by UPS / FedEx, but you are mandated to provide that in USPS. Fix those 2 and then we can get it working. UPS / FedEx are not responsible for 51c letter delivery, USPS are. If you remove that then it would probably get things rolling fast.

 

[Slick3914]

Relying on the post office to provide banking services is a Fool's errand.

 

[BISCUT]

They are independent in the sense that their budget doesn't come from Congress. But as a government agency, they do enjoy certain benefits but their hands also get tied by Congress on what they can do. So your solutions sound great on paper, but you have to get the approval of Congress to do it so it's pointless to think you can just spout off a bunch of easy solutions and actually expect them to get passed.

The head of the agency is actually appointed by the board of governors who are nominated by the President. When you stack them, you can get them to vote for whoever you like. There's actually a few vacancies now so it could be stacked the other way and the current guy could get kicked out. That could still happen, just hasn't happened yet.

And hence the 2020 election use of the USPS as a bludgeon. None of what you write established what I would consider an "independent" agency. To me it actually IS just that simple. Government takes not gives and then takes more. I have absolute faith if government was removed from USPS and the system privatized within a few years the USPS would be as viable as Fed Ex/UPS. Your premises all have a common denominator, that being government. I feel the "too big to fail" mantra in the words but that is speculation.

 

[Wolf359]

And hence the 2020 election use of the USPS as a bludgeon. None of what you write established what I would consider an "independent" agency. To me it actually IS just that simple. Government takes not gives and then takes more. I have absolute faith if government was removed from USPS and the system privatized within a few years the USPS would be as viable as Fed Ex/UPS. Your premises all have a common denominator, that being government. I feel the "too big to fail" mantra in the words but that is speculation.

I feel that you have failed to make your case and have a simplistic view of the situation. It's never going to be independent in the sense that it can do whatever it likes like FedEx or UPS. Those are private companies that can do whatever they like and they're also free to fail. The postal service could never really be independent as they're under mandate to deliver to every address at a fixed rate. UPS and Fedex can't do that. On the flip side, Fedex and UPS have constraints that the postal service doesn't. Ever notice how mail trucks don't get parking tickets but UPS/Fedex does? They're government vehicles so they enjoy some government benefits. The whole reason they're in this trouble is because they're required to do certain things by Congress and also enjoys some protections that UPS/Fedex don't have.

You're basically living a pipe dream if you think Congress would remove the controls from the Postal system. They tried to do away with just Saturday delivery years ago and there was a big outcry about it and it was stopped. Now you think it could be freed up so they can do whatever they want? It's basically why I say you have too simplistic a view of the situation. Like saying you can get rid of crime if you line up all the criminals and shoot them. Try actually getting it done.

 

[BISCUT]

I feel that you have failed to make your case and have a simplistic view of the situation. It's never going to be independent in the sense that it can do whatever it likes like FedEx or UPS. Those are private companies that can do whatever they like and they're also free to fail. The postal service could never really be independent as they're under mandate to deliver to every address at a fixed rate. UPS and Fedex can't do that. On the flip side, Fedex and UPS have constraints that the postal service doesn't. Ever notice how mail trucks don't get parking tickets but UPS/Fedex does? They're government vehicles so they enjoy some government benefits. The whole reason they're in this trouble is because they're required to do certain things by Congress and also enjoys some protections that UPS/Fedex don't have.

You're basically living a pipe dream if you think Congress would remove the controls from the Postal system. They tried to do away with just Saturday delivery years ago and there was a big outcry about it and it was stopped. Now you think it could be freed up so they can do whatever they want? It's basically why I say you have too simplistic a view of the situation. Like saying you can get rid of crime if you line up all the criminals and shoot them. Try actually getting it done.

We can banter back and forth in perpetuity. I merely played off your use of Independency, I never purported that there were not government constraints. I feel your accepting of a lesser service merely because the USPS is entrenched in government. We certainly have different lenses but I'd think we'd both agree to remove government control would lead to a significant increase in efficiency and chances are Saturday delivery would be either via contract or an ala carte service offered to those who request it.

The whole pipe dream comment .... no pipe dream. Government takes and then takes more. Government never gives up power and control. The overall tenor of your writing is apologetic for lackluster government performance and seems to be permissive of what is by many standards, an unsuccessful venture. Not on the same scale but comparable to Amtrack.

As far as simplicity, I'm certainly appreciative that the last presidential administration did not have this defeatist idealogy. Love him or hate him, facts are facts. It was his administration that was told it was an impossibility to get a viable vaccine so quickly. There's an old saying, It's hard to argue with success. Only government and politics make a mockery of that old saying.

PM sent.

 

[opus1]

I seem to recall a congressman from IL (Dan Rostenkowski) using the USPS as a bank - purchasing thousands of dollars in postage stamps with public money and then turning that into cash...but I digress.

Kind of interesting that the USPS can't ship alcohol when they can ship things that contain alcohol (like aftershave).

 

[tshephard]

Just to get it down somewhere in case a decider is reading:

Go to every other day residential delivery and pickup, roll on through weekend (Sunday skip) so worse is ever 3 days.
( I get Fri, skip Sat, Sun off, I get Mon. Neighbor gets Thur, gets Sat, Sun off, Mon skip, gets Tues.)
Residential cost cut in half!
Congressional: for 6 months 2 day window on all bills to get used to it, then normal.