(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

This evening I walked up to the post office that I normally go to when I want to mail stuff, because they're nicer than the Ft. Dearborn post office (for real, you guys, don't ever go to the Ft. Dearborn post office, they're terrible people). But when I got to the Nice Post Office, I saw something a little odd through the window. The PO boxes had been gutted -- there were just big walls with gaps in them.

That's a little strange, I thought to myself jauntily. They must be remodeling! Oh well, I will mail my packages and make pleasant chit-chat about the remodeling and be on my way!

Then I got to the front door and there was a sign there all SUCKER WE MOVED WE'RE BACK THE WAY YOU CAME AND HIDDEN IN AN APARTMENT BUILDING NOW. Only, you know, in more formal wording and with a giant google map printout.

THEY MOVED THE POST OFFICE.

Who does that? I've never seen a post office move before. Where once there is a post office, there is now no post office! Just a big googlemap making me look like a dumbass! What is this, a Miyazaki film? POST OFFICES ARE SUPPOSED TO STAY PUT.

Clearly I need a "sam doesn't handle change well" tag.

Comments

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

So... when you found the new post office, did you act all nonchalant? Yeah? Like...no big deal? LOL.

I am surprised you don't already have that tag.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Aside from trying to push open a pull-open door...:D

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Our post office at home moved once! Granted, it moved all of two shops down. It used to be in a looong, narrow, dark storefront, and the postman sat behind his desk and never smiled and never said anything and pretended he didn't recognise anyone (we used to play Postman Baiting, and send every single member of our family in to pick up the mail, and see how long it took before he told us that the rest of the family had already been in).

Then he moved to a bigger shop, started selling stationery, and learned to smile! It was something of a miracle. We think it might've had something to do with getting laid.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

They moved my hometown's main post office. From a rather lovely listed, if slightly out of the way with no parking, original building to an ordinary shop unit in a long line of dreadful shops which desperately need tearing down. With even less parking. Of all the places htey could have put it when making it slightly more town-centrey (whilst not infringing on the post office which is the other end of town...) they chose the worst one. And now the only other decent shop from that run has moved out, so there would be nothing stopping them tearing it all down and salting the earth except that there's the town's main bloody post office there.

Of course, in this city and the last I lived in, they have closed the main post office entirely. In both cases they have moved into WH Smiths, a stationers/bookshop. It's like they said "which is the most hellish shop in the run up to Christmas, because that is totally where we should put the post office". In Carlisle they even put the post office part upstairs! Which is a real bugger for all the old folks who, you know, rely on the post office for most financial services. (There was a lift - which wasn't even working when it opened!) These days if I need to post something, I wander out to a little local one instead. The big one is such a nightmare, I long ago learnt that despite being a 5 minute walk from work, it is not realistic to expect to both post something and eat something when you only have an hour for lunch. Dreadful, dreadful place.

[aunty_marion]

They did that in Swansea (where my mum lives) - put the PO in WH Smugs, upstairs. It used to have a perfectly good building of its own, but it was - I can only assume - thought to be 'out of the way' because it wasn't directly in what has become the new town centre. So they sold that building off (I think it's a shop of some sort now) and you have to go up the escalator or stairs or lift inside WHS, there's less than half the space there was before so the queue is appalling, and there are people fighting past it to get to the coffee bar at the other end. *sigh* So mum tends to go to the little local one instead, too.

[morgan-lowri.livejournal.com]

I need an icon that says 'Giggling at Sam's Fear of Change Since 2005!'.

[vivichick.livejournal.com]

I think we all need that icon :)

[2nd2ndalto.livejournal.com]

YOU CAN'T JUST MOVE A POST OFFICE.

*possibly maybe also has issues with change*

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I had the EXACT SAME THING happen today! I biked all the way out to the one closest to work and it was completely gone,* though without the helpful (if insulting) redirection and map. They stole my post office! I was going to go console myself with pastry at the bakery a couple blocks away but on the way I noticed there was one of those privately-run shipping shops that did USPS, so I went in and there was no line and the lady behind the counter was very friendly and helpful, so I accept this as a valid alternative. And it's about half a block closer to work as well.

There was pastry anyway, but it was celebratory rather than conciliatory and therefore contained no calories.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Apparently the Post Office is closing 2000 offices nationwide. Because they are losers.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

When they move a post office, do you think they have to remember to leave a forwarding address?

[mysid.livejournal.com]

[giggles] Good question!

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Our post office moved from a 50s era building with crap parking to a new-built facility. It's much nicer, but on the other side of town. Luckily, it's a one horse town, so that don't mean much.

[keestone.livejournal.com]

The post office in my last neighborhood moved from its own premises to a counter in the back of the convenience shop across the street. I suppose it was a coup for the shop, but it was a bit annoying to queue by the milk cartons.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

WOW GHETTO.

I FEEL YOUR PAIN.

[chandri.livejournal.com]

Last week I walked the eight blocks down and over to my local post office to pick up a package, only to find that the shop where the post office lived had shut. My sign said something to the effect of HA HA THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO HAVE A LEISURELY WALK DIDN'T YOU. I pulled out my phone and GoogleMapped it and ended up having to take a bus five blocks over and another twenty blocks south to the new post office location. That's THIRTY BLOCKS SOUTH OF MY APARTMENT. And an HOUR out of my life, there and back on the bus. Dear Canada Post, how did this seem like a reasonable compromise? HOW?

[firynze.livejournal.com]

...given that my town has just a teeny wee post office where 90% of the clerks know me by name and tease me about all the tea packages I used to send out...I think I would have a HEART ATTACK if they moved it. POST OFFICES DO NOT MOVE.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

That's the thing, like, the clerks are still the same! It's the same three women it always is, just...four blocks from where they're supposed to be.

[tree00faery.livejournal.com]

Your life, I find it amusing. :P

[daizy2k2.livejournal.com]

I used to use the post office in the student center, but then they closed it all down to remodel, and I had to locate another post office. :(

[macnik-the-6th.livejournal.com]

*delurks*

Our small town recently LOST our post office, as the lease on the building was up, and the government and building owner couldn't agree on a price for a new lease! So, instead of moving, they just CLOSED IT DOWN. We still get mail delivery (from 3 towns away instead of our own), and if we want to mail something we have to go the next town's PO (which mind you, is about 1 mile from where ours used to be).

But STILL, we don't have a post office anymore!

I feel kinda lost in a town without a post office...

*re-enters lurk mode*

[rabidfangurl.livejournal.com]

Bitch to your congress-critter. That's what my town did, which resulted in the post office moving to a building that had just been built nearby.

[beadslut.livejournal.com]

Have you tried the Lakeview Post Office, now named after Steve Goodman?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Is that the one on Ashland, south of Lincoln? Talk about inconvenient locations :D

Who's Steve Goodman?

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

I would find that deeply annoying and distressing, mainly because the big selling point for this apartment is that it's in a great location -- moving the post office would be a severe blow to how much I could tolerate the lazy maintanence scheduling and the rent that just keeps creeping upwards.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

The post office where I had my PO box for my freelance business had to close because the building is sinking or something. So now the PO boxes are up the road in a raised quonset hut/trailer thing, and the PO services part is in a convenience store across the parking lot from the trailer thing. Bee-zarre.

[fullofowls.livejournal.com]

*joins the "oh, Sam" brigade on this one*

just dropping by to say that everybody LOVES this icon you made that I am now using as my default... it has been used as a measure of cuteness! (http://community.livejournal.com/shwatchalongs/42548.html?thread=6252596#t6252596)

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

LOL! It's pretty cute. ADORABATS.

[cymbal-monkey.livejournal.com]

Ten bucks bets Moist von Lipwig was involved.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

*fistshake* VON LIPWIG!

[bauhinea.livejournal.com]

My husband swears our nearest PO is never in the same place twice, in hyper space or somewhere; or of course he is just a hopeless navigator!

[mcgonagalls-cat.livejournal.com]

(It didn't really move, they just saw you coming and made it look like the building was empty. Two minutes after you left it was back up and running. Really.]

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

My local PO was closed for a while recently, for "renovation," and when I went to the newly reopened site last week I found that the staff had mostly been replaced by machines. It's now a Roboposte, where clients have to do everything themselves.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. I'd kill for one of those, I bet it goes a lot faster.

Sadly, the international nature of my shipping requires me to give the envelopes to a human being.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

What is this, a Miyazaki film? *dies laughing* You're right, it's an abomination!

[freakishlemon.livejournal.com]

I don't know what I would do if they moved our post office. I also don't know where they'd move it to because we don't exactly have a plethora of buildings to choose from. If it did move, it would probably be into someone's living room.

Actually, I have an aunt up in New Hampshire who owns an old house where the front room used to be the post office for their town about a hundred years ago. There's still some mail cubbies in the wall. It's pretty neat.

[sunlitshadow.livejournal.com]

This is unfortunately happening a lot because we computer users are rendering traditional mail service a thing of the past. The town/small city I grew up in used to have 4 post offices and something like 80 mail carriers. They're down to 2 offices, soon to be just 1, and half as many carriers because the volume of mail has dropped off so much.

The postal service just can't afford to keep a lot of places open in the smaller towns and in cities, they're looking for cheaper leased space. :-\

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

You know, honestly, if UPS/FedEx/DHL were as cheap nationally or as convenient internationally, I'd be using them. It's not like the post office provides very good service, either. When you're the last resort, of course you're going to lose money...