Starting Aug. 5 this year, the United States Postal Service will no longer be delivering mail on Saturdays, the USPS announced in a press release Feb. 6. The USPS will continue delivering packages Monday through Saturday, but snail mail will only go Monday through Friday, with the exception of mail addressed to P.O. boxes, which will still continue on the six-day delivery schedule. This new plan will save approximately $2 billion annually.
Bearing News asked RBHS students:
1. How will no mail on Saturday affect you?
2. Is it reasonable for the USPS to stop delivering mail on Saturdays?
Adam Lafferty, sophomore
“It won’t really affect me. I don’t get mail usually; my parents might, but not me.”
“Probably not, since everyone’s been relying on it for a while, but it doesn’t really affect me, so I don’t know.”
“Well, no mail on Saturday — my mom is kind of big into that, so that will definitely affect her because the weekends is when we get most of our work done, like when we think about thank you cards or just like trying to communicate with our family outside of this town, so it will affect us in that way and kind of college recruiting and stuff because that’s kind of when I think about the colleges I want to go to, and now I need to have that reminder that the mail on Saturdays … that will just throw me off a little bit.”
“I think they should be able to deliver it on Saturdays. I mean it’s kind of their job isn’t it?”
“With the whole mail thing, the only time I’ve ever had to send stuff was like packages and passport stuff, but I feel like you can get that done within the week. I feel like there are a lot of businesses and government systems that aren’t open on weekends, and I don’t feel like it’s that big of a deal. Like, banks have weird hours, and I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. If it saves that much money, then why not?”
“I don’t think it’s inappropriate, but I don’t send mail very often, and I don’t think my parents do either. There is so much online, like paying your bills — that’s online, and sending anything in could be online, so I don’t think it’s a big deal to take it away.”
“I don’t really use the mail to be honest, so for messages, we usually just phone in or text. We don’t use mail anymore. It’s kind of old school.”
“I think it’s kind of inappropriate because I know a lot of people that do send mail on Saturdays and sometimes it can be urgent, so I don’t see why they shouldn’t let them be sent on Saturdays.”
“I can’t remember the last time I sent a letter. It’s usually phone calls or text messages or email.”
“My great-grandma lives in our house, and she sends a lot of letters to like her old friends and stuff. I know that yesterday she was making a big deal about it; I’m sure that will affect her a lot, but not really me and my parents.”
“Well, my mom lives in Indiana, and she sends me money ,and it usually gets here on Saturdays. It’s kind of crazy. I’m guess I’m going to have to have her send it a different way or [through the] banks.”
“It’s always been like that. Saturday has always been a day for mail. Now they are just taking it away, and it changes everything, everything. If you expect something on a Saturday, and now they just take it away.”
By Kaitlyn Marsh and Daphne Yu
What is your view? To read other students’ views, click here.
