Postal Service to Close 3,700 Offices

Postal Service will save $200 million by the closure of 3,700 retail post offices across the country, said Postmaster General, Patrick Donahoe at a news conference on Tuesday.

More than 200 each post offices will be closed in Texas, Illinois, Missouri and Pennsylvania.

Weakened by the economy and chased by the private sector competitors like FedEx and the United Parcel Service, Postal Service has been losing grounds for several years.

It already announced in March about the closure of the 2,000 post offices and cut of 7,500 jobs."The Postal Service of the future will be smaller, leaner and more competitive," Doahoe said. The Postal Service has a plan to extend it networks by implementing access to products and services at third party retailers.

The plan unveils the fact that it has $8.5 billion net loss in 2010, and $3.8 billion loss in 2009. It's down 28 percent in the last four years, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Donahoe expressed hope of rising like phoenix bird from the ashes as a stronger organization that "delivers even greater value to the citizens of the United States. The agency also has informed that majority of the 3,653 post offices would gradually shape into a "village post office," where limited postal services would be offered at small businesses.

The postmaster general also revealed that over the next decade, half of the 32,000 post offices would be reviewed for possible closure.

Other plans of the United States Postal Services include restricting mail delivery to five days a week, which would purportedly save $3 billion a year, and cutting back on an annual required payment for retiree-health benefits.

The habits of the customers have shown that they no longer require a physical Post Office to handle most of their postal business, said the Postmaster General.