Let’s face it, getting it all done during the holiday season can cause everyone to look for time-saving solutions. So, if you’re pressed for time (and who isn’t during the holidays?) and you need some alternatives that make your holiday happier, here are three good ones from the U. S. Postal Service:

CLICK N’ SHIP/USPS.COM
This is the ultimate in shipping convenience! The ultra-secure Postal Service website, usps.com, is the Post Office that never closes! Access 80% of the services of a post office from home and never wait in line. Using your major credit card, you can pay for and print out: postage, delivery confirmation and insurance, with a click of the mouse, and then notify your carrier to pick it up, free–the next day. Eco-friendly packaging is also free for the asking with Express or Priority Mail. And with the new Priority Flat-Rate Boxes, weighing isn’t necessary–if it fits, it ships! You get reliable 2-3 day shipping with no fuel or delivery surcharges!

CONTRACT POSTAL UNITS
We have them everywhere in South Carolina, with 41 in the 290-6 ZIP Code Area. Below is a listing of 9 here in the Midlands. They are perfect for holiday mailing, because they provide a complete line of products and services, (everything except money orders and P.O. boxes) including packaging supplies and stamps for your Christmas cards. Find the one nearest your address at the Locate a Post Office on usps.com.

AUTOMATED POSTAL CENTERS
Talk about quick, these handy, credit card-operated futuristic vending machines provide 80% of the products and services of a Post Office, and are very user-friendly. You can purchase stamps and postage, deposit a package, get insurance and add delivery confirmation all with one swipe of a major credit card. They’re also located in the part of the Post Office lobby that’s accessible 24-7. Here’s where to find them in the Midlands: Columbia Main Office, Forest Acres, Northeast, Sandhills, Irmo, Lexington and West Columbia.  Find the one nearest your address at the Locate a Post Office on usps.com.

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

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. 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 26th in the 2008 Fortune 500.