SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Postal Service has announced a strategic alliance for Metro Post® with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM®, the world’s leading florist and gift shop. Metro Post is a same day delivery service trial that launched today in San Francisco, just in time for last minute gift ideas during the holidays.

“Metro Post is a premium delivery service that will revolutionize the shipping industry,” said Gary Reblin, vice president, Domestic Products. “Building relationships with prominent retailers like 1-800-FLOWERS.COM will help us leverage our capabilities by making same day delivery a standard option on retail websites.”

Metro Post is designed to improve the experience of customers shopping on e-commerce sites by offering same day delivery in a metro area. The market test in San Francisco is expected to run for one year.

Metro Post will be available for purchases involving four of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM’s gourmet gift brands, including popcorn and specialty treats from The Popcorn Factory®; cookies and baked gifts from Cheryl's®; premium chocolates and confections from Fannie May® fine chocolates; and gift baskets and towers from 1-800-Baskets.com®.

Consumers can utilize the Metro Post premium service online or in-person at a retail store that carries the company’s branded gift items. The daily cut-off time for purchases delivered by Metro Post is 2:00 p.m. with deliveries to occur between 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

“At 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, we’re all about helping our customers deliver smiles, said Chris McCann, President, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. “We’ve been doing it with same-day floral deliveries for more than 35 years and now with the Postal Service’s Metro Post service, we’re very excited to be able to expand our same-day gift offerings to include some of our great gourmet food brands.”

Reblin added, “The Postal Service is committed to building and driving strategic relationships to improve our customers’ experience. USPS will work with multiple retailers that have both an online presence and physical ‘brick and mortar’ stores or warehouses within a given metro area.”

Additional information on the Postal Service’s premium same day delivery service can be found at www.usps.com/metropost/. Broadcast quality video highlighting the delivery process for Metro Post is available for media use at http://www.uspsvideo.com/.

The U.S. Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. Developing exciting new products and services is essential to realizing the Postal Service’s goals of expanding customer access and achieving financial sustainability.

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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at http://about.usps.com/news/welcome.htm.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation — 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office™ Boxes. The Postal Service™ receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com®, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, Oxford Strategic Consulting ranked the U.S. Postal Service number one in overall service performance of the posts in the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

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About 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc.

1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. is the world's leading florist and gift shop. For more than 35 years, 1-800-FLOWERS® (1-800-356-9377 or www.1800flowers.com) has been helping deliver smiles for our customers with gifts for every occasion, including fresh flowers and the finest selection of plants, gift baskets, gourmet foods, confections, candles, balloons and plush stuffed animals. As always, our 100% Smile Guarantee backs every gift. The 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Mobile Flower & Gift Center was named winner of the Mobile Shopping Summit's "Best Mobile Site of 2011." 1-800-FLOWERS.COM was also rated number one vs. competitors for customer service by STELLAService and named by the E-Tailing Group as one of only nine online retailers out of 100 benchmarked to meet the criteria for Excellence in Online Customer Service. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM has been honored in Internet Retailer's "Hot 100: America's Best Retail Web Sites" for 2011. The Company's BloomNet® international floral wire service (www.mybloomnet.net) provides a broad range of quality products and value-added services designed to help professional florists grow their businesses profitably. The 1-800-FLOWERS.COM "Gift Shop" also includes gourmet gifts such as popcorn and specialty treats from The Popcorn Factory® (1-800-541-2676 or www.thepopcornfactory.com); cookies and baked gifts from Cheryl's® (1-800-443-8124 or www.cheryls.com); premium chocolates and confections from Fannie May® confections brands (www.fanniemay.com and www.harrylondon.com); gift baskets and towers from 1-800-Baskets.com® (www.1800baskets.com); delicious cut-fruit arrangements from FruitBouquets.com (www.fruitbouquets.com); wine gifts from Winetasting.com® (www.winetasting.com); ultra- premium meats from Stockyards.com (www.stockyards.com); as well as exquisite, customizable invitations and personal stationery from FineStationery.com® (www.finestationery.com). The Company's Celebrations® brand (www.celebrations.com) is a premier online destination for fabulous party ideas and planning tips. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. is involved in a broad range of corporate social responsibility initiatives including continuous expansion and enhancement of its environmentally-friendly "green" programs as well as various philanthropic and charitable efforts. Shares in 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. are traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, ticker symbol: FLWS.