Auburndale, WI — Auburndale is a town of approximately 700 people covering a total area of little more than two square miles.  It is home to one of the first radio stations in the country, which is still broadcasting today on Wisconsin Public Radio.  

On Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, Auburndale will add another claim to fame as one the first Village Post Offices (VPO) in the state of Wisconsin. In fact, this will be the sixth VPO in the state. The grand opening will be held at the Auburndale Country Store 5768 Main Street, Auburndale, WI, 54412.  

The new postal center will be officially opened by local and postal officials at 11:00 a.m.

Auburndale Country Store owner Jenny Homb said she learned about the opportunity after hearing that the local Post Office hours would be adjusted.  “We thought we could provide some wrap-around service for the Post Office,” she said. “And we thought it would be a way to help our business and provide more foot traffic.”

Auburndale Country Store will be providing the following basic services: Forever stamp sales, a blue collection box, free Priority Flat Rate box supplies and pre-paid package drop off.  Customers will also be able to purchase postage to ship out Priority Flat Rate Boxes and envelopes. 

The Auburndale Country Store is open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and until 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Several more VPOs are scheduled to open in the Lakeland District in the coming months. More information about the Village Post Office is available at www.usps.com/villagepostoffice. 

Last year, the Postal Service introduced the VPO model as an alternate retail location for postal products and services, especially in rural communities. VPOs are operated by local businesses contracting with the Postal Service, and offer a range of popular postal products and services including stamps and flat-rate packaging.

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 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.

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