Federal Government
Common Cents at Post Office
January 10, 2006 
Wow! Intelligent manager at the Overland Station Post Office on Federal Way.
When the price of a first class letter went from 37 to 39 cents on Monday, patrons were lined up out the door waiting to buy 2 cents worth of postage.
Along came manager Teri Stites who placed a Post Office tray full of 2 centers on the counter along with a sign telling folks to toss their pennies in the tray for what ever they needed. A mutual trust honor system. 
Those high paid clerks were not making 2 cent transactions and folks were not forced to stand in line for 10 minutes for want of a 2 cent stamp.
Attaboy Teri for having the common cents to offer a “manager special.”
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Comments & Discussion
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© 2006 Boise Guardian. 
Jan 10, 2006, 4:38 pm
Say, Teri, you should be Poster boy of the month for all bureaucrats–city, county, state and federal. Seldom does one of them save money and time for both the people and the government.
Jan 10, 2006, 6:29 pm
A friend sent me something in the mail today (with 20 $.02 stamps enclosed) I think worth sharing. “Let’s assume 10 million Americans make a special trip to purchase $.02 stamps, taking an average of 30 minutes round trip. Now assume the average hourly value of their time is $12 per hour. In this projection, the cost/time value of 10 million Americans buying $.02 stamps is $60 million dollars. Wow!” Thanks to my friend and the postal employee who used common sense and potentially saved tens of thousands in productivity!
Jan 10, 2006, 6:30 pm
Lets hire her and put her in charge of the Gov’s new billion $ road project…. I think we are going to need a little common “cents” on that job!
Jan 11, 2006, 9:10 am
I just used the vending machine to buy 40 2cent stamps. No waiting, and woo-hoo the previous user had forgottten to take their change. (You have to press the “no” button to get your change) I came out 80 cents ahead.
The larger question is: are people so dumb or cheap as to wait a half hour for a 2cent stamp when they could have put 2 37cent stamps on, and been done with it?
Instead of an honor system box of 2cent stamps, a sign saying “is it GONNA KILL YOU to use 2 37cent stamps per letter just this once? Maybe you could forego that Starbuck’s coffee today.”
The post office would have had a nice boost in profits, patrons would have saved time and perhaps the next rate hike could have been staved off for an extra year or so.
Jan 11, 2006, 6:36 pm
Damn, Boisecynic, did you hit the nail on the head. How people get so riled up by a two cent increase in anything is beyond me. The USPS is a good value in delivering stuff that needs to be in the original, but not in a hurry, like documents that require an actual signature, or a card to a grandchild. People will spend $20 or $30 to Fed X or UPS a document(s)for overnight delivery as long as someone else has to pay for it. (I confess ignorance about the USPS Express Mail cost.)
This is just like those folks who will drive 20 miles to buy gasoline at two cents lower than the station down the street.
I have decided in a similar vein to ignore Albertons’ gross overcharging for many items in favor of their giving their employees a living wage. (Giving Larry Johnston the boot would give me much pleasure, however.)
ED NOTE: Hey guys, the point of the story was what a nice thing it was to TRUST the customers and have a postal worker who–like you–didn’t worry about risking a couple bucks worth of stamps out of her own pocket.
Jan 11, 2006, 8:36 pm
What a great idea on the stamps (Glad you “caught” ’em at it.)
Even here in little ol’ Emmett, there was a long line at the P.O. much
of the day. Seems nobody got their stamps ahead of time (Maybe they thought USPS would change its mind at the last minute and not raise the price? Ha! Fat chance, eh?)