RIVERSIDE, CA – With nearly 100,000 places to buy stamps, ship a package or renew a passport, the U.S. Postal Service is expanding customer access to its products and services. In the San Diego Postal District, which includes San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial and Inyo counties, customers have hundreds more options available to them.

It’s not about brick-and- mortar Post Offices anymore, as Postal Service products move online and into retail outlets, grocery stores, office supply chains and pharmacies.

Responding to changing customer needs and a business plan that calls for expanding access to Postal Service products, stores including Costco and Office Depot are offering shipping and mailing services.

According to Riverside Postmaster Jim Owens, the Postal Service is changing for the better.

“We’re teaming up with hundreds of new stores in Riverside and the surrounding area so customers can do postal business at places where they already shop,” Owens said. “These days shoppers and shippers have more to do and less time to do it. We know simpler is better – online, on your mobile device, on your way, with an expertise that you can count on.”

Customers can find many locations to purchase postal services in Riverside and the surrounding area by visiting an interactive map at www.uspseverywhere.com and typing in a ZIP Code. Using the simple icon guide designating stamps, shipping and packaging, PO Boxes and other services, customers can easily navigate to retail outlets, grocery stores, Automated Postal Center (APC) kiosks and Post Offices, among other options.

In Riverside, for example, there are over 40 Approved Postal Provider locations.

With Post Office hours usually ending by 5 p.m. or earlier, customers can send a Priority Mail Flat Rate Box and buy Forever stamps as long as the alternate sites are open – often as late as 9 p.m. Some sites are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“We’re creating easier, more convenient access to products and services when and where our customers want them,” Owens said. “We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere.”

There are about 32,000 Post Office locations around the country that sell Postal Service products and services. There are more than 50,000 other locations selling postage stamps alone – the top product sold at Post Offices. With the additional shipping provider locations added in, customers have about 100,000 locations and ways to do business with the Postal Service.

Nearly 35 percent of the Postal Service retail revenue comes from expanded access locations such as Costco, Office Depot, grocery stores, drug stores, APCs, ATMs and usps.com, open 24/7.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

An electronic press kit on expanded access, including b-roll, JPEGs and audio soundbites can be found at http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/expandedaccess/welcome.htm.

We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere: www.uspseverywhere.com

# # #

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

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 tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere: www.uspseverywhere.com. 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 $67 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 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. 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 six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.