No mail drop box at Wal-Mart

[Splitrock]

I just made an emergency run to Sioux Falls Wal-Mart east side to pick up some Red Yeast Rice tablets and mail a letter . . . and to my surprise the greeter said there isn't any place to mail a letter. I drove a loop around the parking lot to see if I could spot an outside mailbox and none.

I'm not sure why I was surprised. It looks like there's a shortage of USPS drop boxes on Sioux Falls east side. I drove up to 6th and Sycamore to the bank's drive up with a drop box.

Wal Mart did have the Red Yeast Rice though. All is well . . . another day in paradise!

Gary

[azflycaster]

There are fewer where I live, maybe this is why:
Reward offered after mail collection box stolen in north Phoenix

[vswingfield]

I don't think I have ever seen a mailbox at a Wal-Mart now that you mention it.

If you check http://usps.whitepages.com/post_office under "Services", there is a dropdown menu titeled "What are you looking for?" You can search for Post Office locations or Collection Boxes by city or ZIP Code.

[CanoeStream]

But do they have wireless for customers? [removed annoying instruction to look for mailboxes alongside the pay phones...][not really]

Sign of the times I guess.

[Foiled Again]

Remember 9/11? Remember the Anthrax letters?

Our genius country decided to remove drop boxes left, right and center to FIX those problems. Yep. Inconvenience and outright punish the nice people who want to do legitimate business without a friggin' prayer of catching a bad guy.

Remember when the FBI actually CAUGHT people?

Of course the average person passes by 50 surveillance cameras in any given day... and if law enforcement collects all of the tapes from an area surrounding a crime scene, they will almost certainly find the criminals ON one of those tapes/hard drives.

Sorry - I'm ranting. We own a private mail receiving agency. They uprooted our outsidemailbox about a month after 9/11. Then people walked in and handed us their mail, which we tossed in a big canvas tote cart that the USPS had given us... and then it went right into the system the same way it did when we had the effen outside box. (We actually did get some new customers who'd walked or driven past but hadn't come inside before... so I shouldn't complain.) Oh... and about 13 months later they reinstalled the outside box to make it easier for the mailman to pick up! Oh... and the snotty remark about the FBI actually catching people? We had an ODD customer come in to rent a mailbox. We have cooperated with or alerted the FBI or 3 or 4 major criminals who've used our services. We knew something was off. We notified the FBI over a year before 9/11 and asked them to send an agent out to investigate. It was a "too low priority" tip. A week after the towers fell, they picked up the mail for Mohammed Atti, one of the hijackers who died in the attack. We, and over 2 dozen other businesses around the country spotted "something off" about these guys - one was a flight school who told the FBI that they had an obviously foreign student who wasn't interested in learning how to safely land a plane.

20/20 hindsight I suppose, but had they investigated thoroughly?

Paula

[Splitrock]

There's a Target store around the corner from Wal-Mart but I didn't try that for the drop box. If Target didn't have a box I'd have gone way in the wrong direction. The grocery stores locally all have customer service counters where I can buy postage, have a letter sent registered, or just drop a letter in the slot.

I'm old enough to remember when there were mailboxes on neighborhood street corners and a gas station on every corner. Now we drive a mile for gas and pass five banks on the way. I live in the country on the edge of town and before I get to the first stop light, I've gone past three banks. Before I get to the second stop light, I've past two more banks.

I guess the money is in the banks.

Gary

[Boondocker]

I have had pretty good luck with asking businesses to allow me to put a letter in their out going stack. Its worth asking.

[AIR-Quarius]

It was a "too low priority" tip. A week after the towers fell, they picked up the mail for Mohammed Atti, one of the hijackers who died in the attack. We, and over 2 dozen other businesses around the country spotted "something off" about these guys - one was a flight school who told the FBI that they had an obviously foreign student who wasn't interested in learning how to safely land a plane.

Wow! When I read that, I reached over and popped four rolaids at once...what a hair raiser!

[Mikethefixit]

Gary
I think you are not alone. The corner drop boxes have kinda disappeared over the last several years. I know it has disappeared from our corner store about a mile away.
Its a cost cutting measure by USPS.They dont have to pickup those boxes,less stops for the carriers= a shorter day=less wages paid out and no maintenance on those boxes.
Moving Forward. Things change, But not always for the better.

[Gene]

Less mail, less walking and more driving, fewer mailboxes. We used to get two deliveries at home in the '40's and I believe businesses got 3. In a strictly residential area, there were mailboxes—mostly the small kind on a post—all over the place. At one time there was Sunday delivery too, but that stopped long ago.

Gene

[azflycaster]

There is always the US Post Office. You can find one in some of the smallest towns in this country. In the picture below the door to the post office is right behind the American Flag. I have also included a picture of the sign with details of the town.

[Splitrock]

I worked for a downtown business when I was 19 in 1963. We got two mail deliveries a day, one morning and one afternoon, If we mailed a letter in the morning to another downtown business, it was delivered the same day.

We lived in the country on a rural free delivery route and my mother would buy 3 cent stamps by putting change in the mail box with no note attached and when we picked up the mail the stamps would be there. If we didn't have a stamp or 3 cents, we'd mail the letter and the mail man would charge it on a tab for us. We'd pay the tab and buy stamps by leaving change in the box.

We got our first telephone when I was 13. It was a party line with 10 people on the same line. We all had a different ring and all 10 phones would ring when one of the 10 got a call. If somebody got a call at 3 am we'd all know it. I was 7 before we got electricity, 9 before we had an indoor toilet, and 12 when we got our first TV set that got one channel.

Gary

[gaylejoe]

We discovered the same thing on our trip this year. Surprised to discover there were no mail drop boxes at Walmart. Not only that but they do not have the facilities for faxing. Since a lot of travelers use their stores it would make good business sense to have communications section within the store faxes could be received and sent; mail drops, Western Union services, etc.

We carry 2 lap tops and full service printer for our business needs but it would sure be nice if Walmart has a place to drop off mail and possibly some faxing abilities.

[Grand Master]

Here is the Post Office in Wiseman, Alaska (North of the Arctic Circle) which they had to close. Not because there were only 4 families in Wiseman, but because it sank into the permafrost

The New Post Office was opened a few miles away in Coldfoot. Coldfoot is the only truck stop between Fairbanks and the North Slope.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, with the amount of mail being sent now days a drop box is a total waste. Most all of them have been removed. Within about a five mile radius, we have about 15 Post Offices so we just go there when needed. And that is about six times a year. Drop boxes have been hit by cars, lit on fire, filled with paint, blown up with fireworks, and sometimes someone's cat was put in one. I would remove them too. I forgot to mention that they have to be repainted quite often in some neighborhoods due to graffiti. Our mail/drop boxes were removed before we got any Wal-Marts.

[driftless]

Originally Posted by gaylejoe

We carry 2 lap tops and full service printer for our business needs but it would sure be nice if Walmart has a place to drop off mail and possibly some faxing abilities.

Gaylejoe,
If you have a full service printer including scanning capabilities, you should check out efax.com. We are setting it up for our company so we can get rid of the fax machine and extra land line. You can send and receive faxes right from your laptop.

I once found a note from the mailman in my curbside mailbox. It said he couldn't deliver the mail because there was a vehicle parked in front of my box.....but he could leave the note??

[Frank's Trailer Works]

There are five drop boxes between my house and the post office 5 miles away. Must not be many Unibombers or Anthraxers around the Baltimore suburbs. I usually go to the post office so that I know it gets there.

Now Red Yeast? What is it and why is it an emergency to obtain it? Our daycare lady is allergic to yeast. I guess she should avoid the red yeast.

[Gene]

Frank, red rice yeast is supposed to lower cholesterol. My wife tried it and her cholesterol went down some amazing amount though I can't remember the numbers right now, maybe 70 points.

Gene

[Splitrock]

Originally Posted by 62overlander

Now Red Yeast? What is it and why is it an emergency to obtain it? Our daycare lady is allergic to yeast. I guess she should avoid the red yeast.

Last spring my new doctor prescribed Red Yeast Rice and Fish Oil tablets to lower cholesterol and it worked. I was shocked. I take two of each every day.

The emergency part was an embellishment.

Gary

[Pat Conway]

Our next door neighbors from Ontario, Ca are paying $360 they said to the Canadian Postal Service to have their mail forwarded to Florida when they are here over 5 months of the year. They pay nothing to the US Postal Service to have their mail forwarded from Fl to Ontario once they return there. Their mail is more expensive and service is slower than ours. Am afraid that the US is going that route too of less service and more expense to the individual, and on top of that higher taxes coming. Hope I'm not being too political with this. Pat