Postal procrastinators can expect to pay price

Clerks will process 20-billion pieces of mail this holiday season, from gourds to golf clubs.

[Times photo: Dirk Shadd] Earl Dingman carries packages Tuesday to the front of Mail Boxes Etc. on 34th Street S in St. Petersburg. About 1.5-million pieces of mail a day will move through St. Petersburg, 2-million through Tampa.

By CANDACE RONDEAUX, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 5, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- In her 23 years as a Postal Service clerk, Brenda Manragh has stamped everything from car tires to Christmas cookies during the holiday season. But last year, one customer at the 22nd Avenue S postal station absolutely took the fruitcake.

"A lady came in with a cart full of 10 pumpkins that she wanted to send to her sister. She had written the address on the pumpkins," Manragh said.

"She said, 'Do you think this is a wild Christmas present?' I said, 'Uh, well, yeah.' I told her it was kind of hard to put postage on a pumpkin."

From wacky packages to well-intentioned cards, postal clerks across the country are gearing up to handle 20-billion pieces of mail this holiday season. And with this year's holiday hustle shorter than last year's by six days, U.S. Postal Service officials urge people to plan ahead.

"We're telling customers that they should stop sending parcel post and start sending packages by priority mail on Dec. 14," said St. Petersburg postmaster Thomas Pawlowski.

Packages and letters sent Dec. 21 and afterward should be sent by express mail for Christmastime arrival.

[Times photo: Toni L. Sandys] Stephani Kuperschmid: on good list.

Mail traffic is expected to surge during the holidays, with an average of 1.5-million pieces a day moving through post offices in St. Petersburg. In Tampa, postal officials say they expect to handle an average of 2-million pieces of mail a day.

Pawlowski advises customers to avoid long lines for stamps by dropping in at one of the retail mail outlets the Postal Service contracts with during its busiest season of the year.

With a few hundred feet of bubble wrap and several giant bags of Styrofoam packing peanuts at the ready, Mail Boxes Etc. owner Mike Pauletta is prepared for the onslaught.

Business at his store near MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa has been especially brisk since Thanksgiving Day. On Tuesday, he counted 20 packages loaded with homebaked cookies, family photos, candles and foot massagers bound for U.S. troops in the Middle East and Europe.

"The troops want coffee, but of course they can't get it because the military has all these stipulations on what you can send," he said.

Troops may not get much coffee, but they get plenty of tees, Pauletta said.

"We send a lot of golf clubs. We just sent some golf clubs to the Middle East, which is pretty strange because I don't think they have a lot of golf courses over there," he said.

Whether you're sending golf clubs or holiday video hugs to troops overseas, postal officials advise family and friends to get a jump on things by sending care packages out by Dec. 13. Packages to troops in the Middle East could take up to three weeks to arrive.

Mail retailers also are cautioning customers who want to use commercial delivery services such as United Parcel Service to get a move on. FedEx and UPS prices increase drastically as Christmas Day draws near. A 20-pound package sent from St. Petersburg to San Francisco via UPS over land costs about $19 for three- to five-day delivery. But next-day air delivery of the same package costs about $77. Prices, of course, depend on the size and weight of the package and individual delivery companies.

"Some people are shocked by how much it costs to send something the day before Christmas," Pauletta said.

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