U.S. Postal Service: Stamped out?

Charleston businessman Henry Fishburne was picking up his mail at the Old Main Office at Broad and Meeting streets when he learned it soon could close down.

"I was just stunned. I think it would be a terrible loss to the community, and I think the post office should be ashamed of itself for even thinking about doing that," Fishburne said.

The United States Postal Service is struggling with both the current recession and the Internet's growing influence on people's daily routines.

The Postal Service is reviewing eight post offices around the Charleston metro area, and 43 others in the Greater South Carolina District, to see which should remain open and which could be closed down.

"The Postal Service is changing, and we are giving services to our customers in different ways now," said Harry Spratlin, the district's communications coordinator in Columbia. "We're trying to do our job better than ever, and we're trying to cut costs."

Customers now can go online and get 80 percent of the services they can get at a post office, he added.

Spratlin said the Greater South Carolina District, which covers 35 of the state's 46 counties, has 360 post offices but is looking at 51 of them for possible closure. It's part of a national review of 3,200 post offices, mostly in larger towns and cities.

"There are none that are safe from consideration but none right now that are in immediate jeopardy of being closed," he said. The Postal Service will give the public an opportunity to comment before making a final decision, and Spratlin said the review committee aims to finish its work by Oct. 1.

The East Bay Post Office also is on the list, as are six others in North Charleston, James Island and West Ashley. Only the urban post offices are part of the review. The Charleston Air Force Base Post Office already has closed, but post offices in smaller towns, such as Awendaw, Ravenel, Summerville and Sullivan's Island, are safe, at least for now.

"It may be that we don't close any in Charleston," Spratlin added.

The review comes as more people are using their computers to buy stamps and package labels. Transactions at postal branches are down by 3.7 percent this fiscal year, he said. In May alone, there were 105,000 fewer stamp purchases and other transactions than in May 2008.

"Things are changing for the Postal Service. That's primarily because of the recession, but the Internet does have an effect on us," he said. "We're run like a business, and like any business, we have to respond to economic pressures like that by cost running. This is sort of a way to reduce our footprint and costs. We're not reducing service."

The Postal Service hasn't received a tax subsidy since 1982, but its $2.8 billion loss last year was larger than expected. In January, Postmaster General-CEO John Potter told a U.S. Senate subcommittee that the Postal Service, the nation's second-largest employer, is "in acute financial crisis."

Meanwhile, changing locations have been a constant for the three centuries of postal service in Charleston.

The Old Main Office at Broad and Meeting streets is the oldest continually operating post office in the Carolinas, and its dark, carved woodwork and soaring lobby ceiling may make it the most handsome one as well.

But there have been 18 different post offices before that one opened in 1896, according to the Postal Museum inside the Old Main Office. Previously, post offices have been moved because of bombardments, earthquake damage and assorted other reasons.

AROUND THE STATE

Of the 360 post offices in the Greater South Carolina district (which includes most, but not all, of the state's counties), 51 are being considered for possible closure. A decision is expected by Oct. 1. Here's a breakdown on how many post offices are included in different metro areas:

• Columbia — 13
• Greenville — 9
• Charleston — 8
• Myrtle Beach — 4
• Spartanburg — 3
• Florence — 3
• Anderson — 2
• Greenwood — 2
• Camden — 1
• Cheraw — 1
• Simpsonville — 1
• Goose Creek — 1
• Sumter — 1
• Lexington — 1
• North Myrtle Beach — 1

Source: United States Postal Service