KENTUCKIANA DISTRICT — The U.S. Postal Service opened it first Village Post Office in Kentucky on June 27 in Tomahawk. Over the next month, it plans to open six additional locations:
| Lynnville, KY 42063 | Lynnville Grill | 3615 State Route 94 East | July 19 |
| Beattyville, KY 41311 | Sue’s Pantry | 4266 Highway 52 | July 31 |
| Prospect, KY 40059 | Scott’s Village Market | 10640 Meeting St. | Aug. 1 |
| Pembroke, KY 42266 | Fairview Quick Stop | 10998 Jefferson Davis Hwy | Aug. 6 |
| Cromwell, KY 42333 | Cromwell Market | 6035 Highway 231 | Aug. 7 |
| Murray, KY 42071 | Kirksey Store Inc. | 3918 Kirksey Road | Aug. 8 |
The Village Post Office (VPO) is an exciting new concept providing an alternative way for customers to get access to postal products and services. VPOs are designed for non-Postal Service establishments, such as an existing community business, town hall or government center.
This new retail option will be operated by community businesses, such as pharmacies, grocery stores and other local retailers, and provide a specific range of services that include the sale of First-Class postage stamps, offering Priority Mail products and accepting mail.
Village Post Offices are part of the network of outlets operated by third parties to complement the Postal Service’s own retail network. These also include Contract Postal Units, Approved Shippers, Stamps on Consignment locations and Community Post Offices.
The prevalence of postal offerings is considerably greater today than ever before. Today, there are nearly 70,000 alternative locations where stamps can be purchased — particularly grocery stores, banks, ATMs and major retail stores. Postal products and services are available on usps.com 24/7. Postage stamps are available by phone, FAX, internet and through third-party vendors such as stamps.com and zazzle.com. More than a third of USPS retail revenue comes from these Expanded Access venues.
Business establishments interested in establishing a Village Post Office in their local community should contact the Postal Service at: vpo.inquiry@usps.gov. More information about the Village Post Office initiative is available on www.usps.com at http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/expandedaccess/welcome.htm.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
# # #
Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at http://about.usps.com/news/welcome.htm.
A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation — 151 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 $65 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 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, Oxford Strategic Consulting ranked the U.S. Postal Service number one in overall service performance of the posts in the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world. 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 for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
Follow the Postal Service on www.twitter.com/USPS and at www.facebook.com/USPS
