CHICO — If there’s one thing people want more of this holiday season, it’s time. Well, the Chico Post Office, 550 Vallombrosa Avenue, has come up with a time-saving solution by adding a second Automated Postal Center (APC) to help make your postal transactions easy and hassle-free. The APC is a self-service kiosk that lets customers transact their own postal business, offering an option to busy customers where time is a commodity, especially during busy periods. And best of all, they’re available 24/7.

And to make the holiday simpler, Santa’s elves will host an open house at the Post Office just to show you how to use our APC on Monday, December 13, 2010, from 1pm to 4 pm.

Customers can mail letters and parcels, and there is a scale to weigh packages on each APC. Of course, if you’re using Santa’s favorite delivery package -- the convenient Priority Mail Flat Rate Box –— weighing isn’t even necessary. If it fits, it ships, even up to 70 pounds. At the APC, you can purchase stamps, including the new evergreen foursome of Forever stamps, which by the way makes a great stocking stuffer. You can purchase mailing insurance and look up ZIP Codes at the touch of a screen. And to prove Santa delivered your mail, you can even purchase delivery confirmation, signature confirmation, certified or return-receipt services to check when your package is delivered.

Simply use your debit or credit card and you’re out of there quicker than you can name all of Santa’s reindeer.

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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.