US Post Office woes

[Dan]

First, every line of this QA can be ripped apart:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g96mgXUmXPplWKE1XiW4Ka9Ir9vgD9E6LVE81

Second, I just wanted to brain dump somewhere about an NHPR blurb I just heard:

USPS has more offices than McDonalds, grocery stores, _______, and _____ combined.

Average 'customers' per post office: 600
Average customers per grocery store: 20,000

Half of all postmen ( 300,000 of 600,000 ! ) are set to retire in 10 years.

Delivering the mail is a 'fixed cost' per route, and the amount of junk mail being delivered has been reduced to the point where they want to drop Saturday delivery.

They are thinking of relocating many post offices to grocery stores and office supply stores.

And, of course, they are raising rates.