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Albany is not alone. In June 2009 the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced a review of 3,300 post office branches and stations in metropolitan areas “focusing on facilities in relatively close proximity to one another where consolidations might be feasible without compromising customer access.” By that, they meant municipalities large enough to have many branches and stations within their borders. By the fall they had narrowed it down to 400 and were conducting further reviews and holding public input sessions. As of January 29, 2010 it was down to 162, with “no final decisions made.” The list is final, with the Postal Regulatory Commission giving it a stamp of approval, but USPS spokesperson Greg Frey says there are no plans to actually act on the list at the moment.

It’s no secret that the USPS is facing financial difficulty. It was already scrambling to adapt to the relentless shift away from the mail for transactions such as bill delivery and bill payment, and doing fairly well at it, when the recession hit, taking a massive chunk out of its commercial business—sales flyers and the like. The agency ended the first half of its fiscal year (October 1, 2009, to March 31, 2010) with a net loss of $1.9 billion, and its mail volume for 2010 is projected to be 10 billion pieces fewer than the previous year.

Of course what sets the USPS apart from both private business and other government agencies is that, first, it’s required to serve the entire country, reaching every single address and, second, it’s required by law to turn a profit without receiving any tax money. Then, in 2006, the Bush administration saddled it with an extra cost: a clause that directed it to immediately create a trust fund to cover future retirees’ anticipated health benefits. As Greg Frey, USPS spokesperson says, “How anybody thinks they can estimate how many employees we’re going to have into the future …” This rule resulted in an additional one-time $5.4 billion in costs. Relief from this trust fund requirement, along with permission to move to a five-day delivery week, are the top things the USPS is seeking from Congress to help it maintain solvency.

But smaller cost-cutting measures are also being implemented on all fronts. Postal carrier routes are being consolidated, excess vehicles and parking are being shed, plants are being reorganized, and stations and branches have been reviewed for “optimization.” For a long time it seemed like station consolidations were imminent, and unless the USPS gets relief on other fronts, they will likely come up again.

“We’re trying our best to maintain easy access,” said Frey. “It’s not our goal to make it difficult to do business with the Postal Service.” But at the same time he also likened physical post offices to phone booths—something that might just be on the way out, replaced by the postal equivalent of cell phones. “Your letter carrier will pick up flat rate boxes,” he noted.

“Today, three out of 10 stamps sold are sold in a grocery store. That’s how today’s American consumer shops, so we’re moving into that groove with them,” adds Maureen Marion, public affairs specialist for the USPS upstate New York, Western Massachusetts and Connecticut region.

But which American consumers? Residents, neighborhood leaders, and union leaders in affected urban neighborhoods take a decidedly different view of the importance of a physical post office and the services it offers that grocery stores don’t—such as postal money orders, passports, P.O. boxes, bulk business mailings, certified mail to prove that social service applications or taxes were mailed by deadline, or help with meeting mailing requirements for a care package being sent to an incarcerated family member. These things are still hard to find elsewhere, even for those few lucky enough to have a home Internet connection, a printer (printer ink isn’t free), and a postal scale. For those who don’t, the nearby post office can be crucial.

McNeilly pointed out that the availability of postal money orders may be one reason her neighborhood hasn’t seen an influx of predatory check-cashing outlets and worries about what might happened once they’re not accessible.