if the post office was smart

Well the post office racked up a 2.8B loss last year. Not bad for a government institution!

I was thinking that they are a clear example of a company that failed to notice that "their cheese was moving."

The Post office failed to realize their strength which is...they have a huge database of addresses and demographics information. Plus, they have a superior organization system (ZIP codes.) What their weakness is, is delivering the mail. It is a business that is going to go away as things go electronic.

Older folks are the last ones to go electronic. Why didn't the post office develop some kind of mail reader/printer for people who don't like computers? Imagine a device with a big screen and about 2 buttons. All your mail is screened, filtered, by the post office according to your demographics and preferences, and delivered to this home "box." You push one button to read the mail and if you want, push the other button to print it.

Imagine if the box had a touch screen that you could write on in long hand and then hit a button to send it to your recipient?

I went to the post office today and not surprisingly, there was a long line of impatient people waiting for their turn to be serviced by a glum clerk. There was one automated postal center (robo-postman); I believe its the only one in a 10 mile radius. I much prefer to use them because their attitude is a lot better than the human clerks.

Why doesn't the postal service put more of them around town? Perhaps in convenient places? Imagine if they were set up as kiosks in malls or parking lots like ATM's? I would pay a buck or two extra not to have to drive 4 miles to my nearest post office.

They couldn't hear the train coming and now they're coming up with innovative ideas like "Let's go to a 5 day delivery week instead of 6!" This is progress? Please.