As USPS Looks to Shrink Service, Three Dallas Post Offices Are in Danger of Being Closed

By Robert Wilonsky Tue., Jul. 26 2011 at 12:18 PM

The Haskell Avenue post office in danger of being shuttered following USPS's study

This morning the United States Postal Services announced it's looking at some 3,700 retail offices that may be in need of shuttering to save dough. Because, per 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 its nearly 32,000 retail offices -- the largest retail network in the country -- diminishes." And while they could be replaced with so-called Village Post Offices, those would be run not by the USPS, but by, say, a grocery store or a pharmacy.

Here's a look at all the Texas locations under review, and you'll find three Dallas locations on the list: Highland Hills on Simpson Stuart, Dr. Caesar A.W. Clark Sr. on Kiest and East Side Finance on Haskell. Unfair Park called all three locations this morning to find out if they were heavily trafficked. Hard to say: No one wanted to address the subject and instead referred all calls to McKinney Boyd, manager of public affairs for the Southwest area. He's out till August, though, and his fill-in, Earl Artis, was out of the office.

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NewsDog

Perhaps this is why USPS is so messed up. I took a look at the list in the link. Would it have been too hard to organize in alphabetical order of the Cities or numerical order of the ZIP codes?

DuckDuckGoose

Maybe it's alphabetical by zip code?

Guest

And one day, as he was driving from the site of the grisly murders in Farmersville to his hideaway in rural Wise County, McKinney Boyd stumbled onto the name he'd be known by for the rest of his life.... the rest of his life, that is, as long as no one ever dug up that old garden back in Farmersville.

Robert Wilonsky

The Fightin' Farmers thank you for that.

Phelps

I think the fact that you had to call them to see if anybody went there speaks volumes.

The post office has an obsolete job that they nonetheless manage to handle incompetently. If they didn't have the backing of congress and a monopoly on first class mail, they would have bankrupted long, long ago.

Dallasite1978

I've got an idea, maybe we should put the government in charge of health care too! Think of it, doctors and nurses with the work ethic of postal workers, the competence of the TSA, job security of, well every unionized government worker and cheery friendliness of well, every unionized government worker...

Sounds like a true workers paradise!

RevB

"The Government" hasn't been in charge of the Post Office since the early 1980's. It is funded by postage, not taxpayers.

But that doesn't stop people from misusing the metaphor.

Janet Pauley

Thank you, RevB, for posting this information.

The people who blog on here seem to be some of the most misinformed of the roles of various governmental entities.

My favorite is when they confuse the City of Dallas with the actions of the Dallas County. And, when stories address the constables or the sheriffs offices, the bloggers on DO blast out lambasting Dallas Police. These people seem to have no understanding and lack the ability to read and learn.

Mike

Oh, but Obama's nationalized health care will be different. Just think happy thoughts and feelings.

Guest

Before long, that socialist Obama will try to get the government to take over Medicare!

And then it's just a small step before our cities are owning hospitals!

What kind of America would that be?

Diane Birdwell

Uh, we already have a gov't owned hospital. We already have gov't paid medical care. Actually, we have TWO gov't hospitals in Dallas: Parkland and the V A M C. Your point is poorly made.

Fletch

As a whole, I would compare the level of customer service I've experienced with the USPS to that of DART. You, the customer, are viewed as a mere annoyance and nothing more. To be fair, not all postal or DART employees treat people this way, but in my estimation the majority do. I'm not about to go out of my way to patronize a post office when most of their workers are surly and flat out rude. This level of apathy and contempt towards customers is a systemic problem for both organizations.

Dallas Diner

I think it varies from post office to post office. The Oak Cliff one, the people are as nice as they can be. The Lakewood one, you're lucky if you can get someone to come out of the back room to sneer at you.

TheRealDirtyP1

They should factor customer service into this study; I only go to the post office if I have to. Stopped going when they stopped smiling and saying thank you. That might have to do with the language barrier though.