SMITHVILLE, TX – On Monday, July 8, the Rio Grande District of the U.S. Postal Service will officially open its first Village Post Office at the Stop n Shop, 1501 NE Loop 230, Smithville, TX 78957. This is the first Village Post Office (VPO) to open in the Postal Service's Rio Grande District. The grand opening ceremony and ribbon cutting will begin at 11 a.m.
Stop n Shop has entered into a partnership with the Postal Service to provide the most frequently-used products to customers during their regular retail hours, which are more expansive than normal Post Office hours. Stop n Shop is open every day from 6 a.m. to midnight. The new VPO will sell Forever stamps and offer a variety of prepaid Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes and envelopes. They will also accept postage-paid letters and packages for free carrier pickup.
The Village Post Office is an exciting new concept for the Postal Service. It was rolled out in 2011 in order to provide customers with additional access to postal services outside the regular retail hours of a local Post Office. Approximately 35 percent of postal revenues come from locations other than brick-and-mortar Post Offices. VPOs can be located in existing retail outlets such as pharmacies and grocery stores, as well as town halls and government centers.
The Postal Service acknowledges the contributions of Stop n Shop and new Village Post Office owner Madan Bishwukarma, who helped make the VPO in Smithville possible.
Business establishments interested in applying for a contract with the Postal Service to start a Village Post Office in their local community should send an inquiry via email to VPO.inquirey@usps.gov or call 888-711-7577.
More information about the Village Post Office initiative is available on www.usps.com at http://about.isps.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.
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A self-supporting government business, 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 nearly 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, the U.S. Postal Service was ranked number one in overall service performance, out of the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world, Oxford Strategic Consulting. 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.
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