Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe is overlooking a golden opportunity to generate some big bucks for the USPS. Greeting cards! This blogger made a trip to the Grand Central Post Office earlier today to pick up stamps and was amazed to find a rack of birthday cards up for sale. The Post Office has been authorized since 2006 to sell mail-related items. I asked two clerks at the GC post office when the card display was installed. They weren’t sure. Obviously, greeting cards are not a big priority at the Manhattan facility.
That’s too bad. My feeling is that racks of cards within reach of the hundreds of people standing in line at the post office would be a gold mine. Talk about a captive audience. It would also be a pleasant diversion.
The Greeting Card Assn. says Americans purchase 6.5B cards per-year. It claims cards generate retail sales of $8B. That seems mighty low. I picked up three Valentine Day cards this year, which took up most of a $20 bill.
So c’mon, Patrick. Put some marketing sizzle into greeting cards sales. It’s a natural. A greeting card and a stamp is like bacon and eggs or peanut butter and jelly.
Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up, a holiday marked by the mailing of seven million cards, according to the GCA. That’s followed by Easter (57M cards), Mother’s Day (133M units), Father’s Day (90M) and Graduation (67M).
Time and money are wasting.
The ridiculously high prices Americans are paying at the supermarket might influence how—or if—they vote in November.
At a moment in history when there are so many conflicts among peoples here and abroad, let us put our differences aside and celebrate this wonderful season in a spirit of togetherness.
The news announcing the death of Henry Kissinger, the last of the prevaricating politicians and so-called statesmen who stole my future and that of thousands of other young Americans, got me thinking about Walter Cronkite.
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