Two letters printed in the Reporter recently dissed the counter service at the post office. We agree that the lines are often long. It seems that not enough workers are available to staff the front counter or, worse, those who are there are not eager to serve us. However, it is not a stretch to say that Islanders are not the most patient bunch. Now that it is the holiday, everyone is a bit more stressed. After dealing with the often frenetic parking lot at the post office, some of us are already in a bad mood before we step in the door.

Like every other business, there have been cutbacks and changes at the postal service. Revenues are down and resources are at a premium. Dale Goforth, the Mercer Island postmaster for three years now, has been at the USPS for 34 years. He said his goal is to make sure that each customer is served within five minutes or less. He said they are in the process of evaluating how to staff that front counter, where just one customer with several packages can set the whole flow out of whack. He said that the post office has seen more and more ‘eBay people’ who come in to ship many packages at once.

But, maybe what most customers do not understand is that they can do much of what is handled at the post office front counter themselves. The Automated Postal Center, or APC, is a machine inside the lobby that allows people to do all kinds of chores, including buying stamps and calculating and generating their own postal labels to prepare a package or large envelope without talking to a single person. It is often idle. Goforth also encourages people to use usps.com to look up everything from zip codes to learning how to hold mail and calculate postage. You can print your own postage or even buy stamps and have them mailed to your house. Maybe if more people took a minute or two to prepare for mailing a package, we all might gain a few minutes back.