SALT LAKE CITY – The United States Postal Service is opening a full-service contract Post Office inside the Harmons Grocery Store at Brickyard Plaza, located at 3270 S. 1300 East, in Salt Lake City. It will have the same look and feel of a Post Office, and offer extended operation hours from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. The public is invited to a grand opening celebration at 1 p.m., Thursday, June 23.

"We’re teaming up with stores like Harmons so customers can do postal business at places where they already shop,” said Acting Salt Lake Postmaster Charley Wright. "Contract postal locations offer virtually all of the services you would find at a Post Office, and the prices are the same."

The Harmons store at Brickyard Plaza previously offered basic postal services behind its main customer service counter. Now Harmons Contract Post Office offers a wide range of shipping products and services. The Post Office features a retail counter and customer service area, signage inside and out, and new weighing and pricing equipment that will speed up transactions and make mailing more convenient.

“We are excited to be able to offer expanded postal services to the community every day of the week,” said Bob Harmon, Harmons’ vice president for-the-customer. “We hope that providing a full service Post Office under our roof will help Brickyard area residents save time and gas in running errands to the grocery store and the Post Office.”

Harmon said all 14 Harmons Grocery Stores offer basic postal services at customer service booths for the convenience of surrounding communities, and that the chain is looking into providing full-service contract Post Offices at some store locations when possible.

Local dignitaries and community members are invited to the June 23 grand opening celebration to welcome the new contract Post Office to the community. Refreshments will be served.

Customers needing postal services can find locations nearest them by using an interactive map at www.uspseverywhere.com and typing in a ZIP Code. Using a 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 (APC) kiosks and Post Offices, among other options.

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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/communications/newsroom/welcome.htm.

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. We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere: www.uspseverywhere.com. 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.