NEW YORK — Utility bills are paid, legal briefs are filed, and the Christmas shopping all gets done online. But for magazines, clothing catalogs and movies, the mail still matters.
For some businesses, quick and cheap first-class mail service from the U.S. Postal Service is still the best way to reach prospective customers and subscribers. And for many, it’s still an important way to get paid.
The Postal Service said Monday it is shuttering more than 250 mail-processing centers, adding at least a day’s wait for many first-class deliveries.
In Colorado, facilities in Alamosa, Colorado Springs, Durango and Salida are targeted.
The news was met with concern and frustration from some businesses — and shrugs from others that long ago stopped relying on the post office.
“It’s less of a disaster than it would have been 10 years ago, but it’ll be a cash-flow crunch for some companies,” said Todd McCracken, president and chief executive of the National Small Business Association. “It’ll be longer to get your invoice and longer to get a check back.”
First-class mail is supposed to arrive at homes and businesses in one to three days. The cutbacks will back up deliveries to two to three days; periodicals could take up to nine days.
Cookie Driscoll of Fairfield, Pa., designs and sells decorative stickers to gift shops. She uses the Postal Service for almost all deliveries because prices are low and delivery is fast. She also receives most of her income by paper checks through the mail.
“The trickle-down effect of this is going to be frustrating,” she said. “It’s not going to put me out of business, but it’s an irritant. Every time small businesses turn around, we get hit with something else.”
The change could represent an operational headache for L.L. Bean, which mails 250 million catalogs a year. Now, the company knows the day its catalogs will arrive in homes, and it can boost staff at call centers on the appointed day. It won’t be able to do that anymore.
Most Netflix customers who subscribe to the company’s DVD-by-mail service watch movies on the weekends and should still be able to return movies Monday and have new ones Friday, according to Michael Pachter, an analyst at the investment firm Wedbush. But other users will notice a delay, he said.
The service changes will almost certainly send more business activity online and to Fed Ex and UPS.
The nearly 30,000 job cuts announced by the Postal Service likely won’t make a big difference to the economy or job market, economists say. Private delivery companies will probably get more business as the Postal Service cuts back.
“It adds to the fear about higher unemployment and inadequate job growth,” said Jon athan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse. But when the cuts are spread over several months, in an economy with about 140 million jobs, there won’t be a large impact, he said.
