LOUISVILLE, KY — Mark’s Hallmark is rolling out the red carpet to celebrate the opening of its seventh contract postal unit (CPU) in the city’s Southwest area.

A grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house will be held at noon on Tuesday, April 5, at the store’s Valley Station location, 10351 Dixie Hwy. Refreshments will be served and the public is invited to attend.

The CPU will provide a full range of postal services at Post Office prices with the exception of Post Office Boxes and Postal Money Orders, according to Louisville Postmaster Richard Curtsinger. “The Mark’s Hallmark location is another way we’re extending our services and making it more convenient to do business with us,” said Curtsinger.

Store owner Charlie Westenhofer and his wife, Sharon, will be joined by postal officials and local dignitaries to dedicate the new facility. Mark’s Hallmark and its employees are excited about partnering with the Postal Service. The Valley Station store is strategically located in a busy area of town.

“This seems to be the perfect marriage,” said Westenhofer. “We’ve found that having a Post Office inside our stores can cause a rise in traffic.”

The Mark’s Hallmark CPU will operate from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. This location will also serve as a collection point for prepaid packages.

Curtsinger and the Valley Station Post Office staff invite customers to attend the open house to learn more about the services offered at this new location.

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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 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.