Yesterday I went to the local Post Office to send holiday goodies on their way. I had 9 medium flat rate boxes, and wanted to get them all sent off in as few trips (and waits in line) as possible. I was anticipating the place being busy, but da-yum. There's a sub-station not too far from the house, but I made plans to go straight to the main one which turns out to have been good thinking on my part. At the sub-station, the parking lot was FULL, with people waiting for spots (and the service counter area there is TINY, more than 3 people in there and it's packed).
So at the main Post Office, the manager of the place or someone she listens to had planned well for busyness. One lady was bouncing around, letting people know which lines were for what services and encouraging people to use the self serve machine as much as possible (and walking them through using it as needed). I went in hoping to score a hand truck or cart or something to ferry boxes in and just inside the main lobby there was a nice, big bin on wheels. I snagged it (with permission) and loaded up my boxes and the helpful lady took charge of the bin as I came in, parked it near where the service counters were but out of the way of the lines of people, AND in a spot where it was easy to take with me up to the counter when it was my turn. So all I had to do was be patient for 15 minutes or so. That I can do.
The guy at the counter when it was my turn was visibly surprised/pleased/relieved when all my boxes were uniformly, correctly addressed and taped and I told him on the first one that none of them had anything hazardous or fragile then shut up and let him work. I'm sure it also made his life a little easier (aside from having 9 fairly good size boxes suddenly piled in front of him) that they were all the same flat rate boxes.
The entire transaction, from the time I pulled into the parking lot took maybe 20 minutes, which is honestly about half the time I had expected to spend getting boxes mailed out.
So at the main Post Office, the manager of the place or someone she listens to had planned well for busyness. One lady was bouncing around, letting people know which lines were for what services and encouraging people to use the self serve machine as much as possible (and walking them through using it as needed). I went in hoping to score a hand truck or cart or something to ferry boxes in and just inside the main lobby there was a nice, big bin on wheels. I snagged it (with permission) and loaded up my boxes and the helpful lady took charge of the bin as I came in, parked it near where the service counters were but out of the way of the lines of people, AND in a spot where it was easy to take with me up to the counter when it was my turn. So all I had to do was be patient for 15 minutes or so. That I can do.
The guy at the counter when it was my turn was visibly surprised/pleased/relieved when all my boxes were uniformly, correctly addressed and taped and I told him on the first one that none of them had anything hazardous or fragile then shut up and let him work. I'm sure it also made his life a little easier (aside from having 9 fairly good size boxes suddenly piled in front of him) that they were all the same flat rate boxes.
The entire transaction, from the time I pulled into the parking lot took maybe 20 minutes, which is honestly about half the time I had expected to spend getting boxes mailed out.
Comment