SAN FRANCISCO — Last month, the California Welcome Center (CWC) located at PIER 39 on San Francisco’s Embarcadero added shipping convenience for customers, merchants and local residents. Now, souvenir laden customers can simply visit the CWC, pack their merchandise into a U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail Flat Rate Box and ship their purchases home.

“With a shipping point so close, visitors who wanted to make a purchase but were worried about carrying the item on the plane or that they might have to check additional luggage and incur a bag charge, can ship the item home directly from PIER 39,” said USPS Business Solutions Specialist Bill Gossy.

With nearly 10 million visitors reaching PIER 39 each year, Gossy had seen an opportunity and contacted PIER 39 to see if there was a way to help the retailers capture more sales by locating a shipping point among the merchants. PIER 39 put him in touch with the CWC, which is located in Building "B" Second Level - Marina Plaza. Gossy worked with the CWC and Endicia.com to develop a self service system that allows customers to process and package their own Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes, and then let the CWC do the rest.

“So far, the feedback has been very positive,” said Gossy. “Customers like the convenience of having access to Postal Service products and services without having to worry about finding a traditional Post Office.”

The CWC is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week and offers free tourist information on all that California and San Francisco has to offer.

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no direct support from taxpayers. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500.