EL MONTE, CA — The El Monte Post Office will offer new retail lobby hours effective Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. The new hours will be Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday hours remain unchanged at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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. 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.

Anyone with Internet access also has a Post Office always open in their computer. At usps.com customers can buy stamps, print shipping labels and download postage, schedule a free package pickup, change their address when they move, look up a ZIP Code or hold their mail when they are away. Almost any transaction that can be done at a Post Office can be done at usps.com!

According to El Monte Postmaster Lisa Calderon, the Postal Service is changing for the better.

“We’re teaming up with many stores in El Monte and the surrounding area so customers can do postal business at places where they already shop,” Calderon 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 El Monte and surrounding neighborhoods 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 kiosks and Post Offices, among other options.

# # #

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. 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.