Since 2006, the U.S. Postal Service, U.S.P.S., has increased the price of stamps four times, going from 39 cents a stamp to 45 cents a stamp. Now, only a month after their last price increase in January, U.S.P.S. released their plans to increase the stamp price to 50 cents a stamp, a whopping 11% jump!
The fact is that U.S.P.S. is in debt, lots of debt. They released the statement that they could be facing financial losses of up to $18.2 billion a year by 2015. With that said, they are looking to use the stamp increase, and the possibility of suspending Saturday delivery, to help them see black once again.
How Are People Reacting To The Price Increase?
Many of the people I’ve talked to are upset by the increase, even my brother voiced his disapproval when I mentioned it to him in conversation. The most common reaction being, “How can they be in debt when I’m receiving more junk mail now than ever before?”
And I must admit, my initial reaction after reading about the stamp increase was annoyance, like most other U.S.P.S. customers. I just sat there thinking, “Come On! You just raised the price! Is that stupid nickel worth all the resulting lash-back you’re going to get? Seems like a Netflix move if you ask me!”
But after thinking about it for a minute or two, I realized something. Although 50 cents seems like a lot compared to the 39 it used to be just 6 years ago, it’s still extremely affordable. Imagine what effort goes into mailing a letter; the pickup, the sorting, the shipping, the sorting again, and finally the delivery, and we’re complaining about 50 cents?
How Much Would You Pay To Mail A Letter?
Let’s say I need to send a birthday card to a friend of mine in Hawaii… I’m not going to hand deliver it because flying myself and my card to Hawaii would be out of the question, regardless of how much I’d love to go to Hawaii. So instead, I spend just 50 cents to have my card flown all the way from Humbleville to Hawaii, less than what I’d pay for a candy bar.
Which brings me to my other point… There are so many times we carelessly spend 50 cents, without ever thinking twice! Whether you’re ordering a side of sour cream at your favorite Mexican restaurant, getting an orange gumball from the vending machine at the mall, or squashing a penny at the zoo, 50 cents seems like such an insignificant amount.
That doesn’t even include the things we carelessly buy that are more than 50 cents, like spending 1.59 on a 20 oz. bottle of soda or buying anything at the dollar store!
I know it sounds like I may have gotten a little off topic here, but the main point remains: How can I be upset about spending 50 cents to mail a letter across country when I’m so eager to spend it on something completely frivolous?
Forever Stamps To The Rescue
If my reasoning doesn’t help to quell the frustrations you have with this price hike, then I do have one more solution for you: Forever Stamps! Forever Stamps are a great product, and I’m really happy the postal service introduced them. Buy a ton of the Forever Stamps now, and hedge against the coming price increase.
It might be expensive up-front, but you’ll save yourself a good amount of money assuming you use stamps often.
What’s your opinion about the Postal Service increasing the price of stamps to 50 cents? Let us know in the comments!