$nail Mail and Australia Post

    Australia Post, you are killing me!  A 43% rate hike for domestic letters has been announced.  Not only is the price of a domestic letter rising from 70 cents to $1 but the letter will take two days longer to get delivered unless the customer pays a premium above that. International mail got slapped around several months ago when international postcard rates ($1.70) were abolished with all international mail stamped at the letter rate of $2.75. Delivery is assured in 3-10 days but lately it has been taking two weeks for anything I've sent. The post office still has their prepaid picture postcards-usually with a native animal or big city skyline on it-  I like sending aerograms (those handy sheets of paper that fold into a prepaid envelope shape) and Aus Post used to change its design frequently.  The current design of a purple iris (aerograms are traditionally blue onion skin) has been in place for three years. Boring.

    Australia Post wasn't always boring. They changed stamps monthly it seemed. And people didn't have to be dead to get their face on a stamp, either. Movie stars, captains of industry, notable natives have all been licked by the general public while they were still breathing.  And they don't limit their merchandise to strictly postal products.  Fun, yet still educational, toys and presents can be found in post offices. Calendars, cookbooks, cookie tins, mini personal DVD players, the occasional sewing machine (!), traditional Australian folk character toys like Snuggle Pot and Cuddle Pie, novelty USBs, art sets and my personal favorite: a build-it-yourself four-stroke engine that runs on batteries. Found only at Christmas time.  In fact, Kev has been known to do his Christmas shopping for the nieces and nephews-especially when they were younger.

    But the extra merchandizing is not enough to battle the loss of revenue from electronic communication the world now engages in.  Post offices everywhere are trying to figure out how to cut unnecessary costs while still providing essential services.  The USPS stopped selling aerograms ten years ago--and won't honor old ones without make up postage to current letter rates. We know this because Mom found a stash of old aerograms when her mother died and the post office required extra postage before mailing. Aus Post may get this nonbrilliant idea also.  For about a year, the USPS also had a surcharge of $9 for all packages being mailed into the U.S. to cover the cost of security checks- regardless of what the postage was. This was almost evil.  The surcharge was rescinded after about a year  but I don't know if that was because of all of the bellyaching customers did or because the USPS lost even more revenue from packages not being sent through their service.

   I like sending letters.  I like nice stationery. I like the feel of paper in my fingers. I like the potential promise every envelope brings into a mailbox. Therefore, I will not stop sending snail mail.  I'll just be a little smarter about it.

   **And we used to howl whenever the USPS announced a rate hike of two cents!**