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View Full Version : Stamped Out: Ben Franklin Post Office slated to close


mikeg826
07-27-2011, 10:07am
The Ben Franklin post office in Philadelphia was informed Tuesday that it will likely be shut down, as the U.S. Postal Service attempts to reel in spending by closing thousands of locations across the country.

The unassuming, three-story brick building, which pre-dates the Revolutionary War, would lose a post office but potentially gain a pharmacy, a grocery store or “other appropriate retailers,” the Postal Service told MyFoxPhilly.com.

The Ben Franklin post office remains the only one in the country that doesn't fly a U.S. flag. That's because there wasn't a U.S. flag in 1775, when Franklin founded what has evolved into today's Postal Service.

There's a postal museum upstairs from the post office, which is located in a house once owned by Franklin. It opened as a post office in 1975, 200 years after Benjamin Franklin was appointed the country's first postmaster general.

MyFoxPhilly.com reported that Franklin succeeded in his final push to establish the post office on July 26, 1775. The museum and a neighboring post office at the site in Philadelphia were unveiled on July 26, 1975. And the facility received word of the potential shutdown on July 26, 2011.

The Postal Service had to adapt to the new environment where more customers are choosing to conduct business online rather than “snail mail.”

There are nearly 32,000 retail offices, and the Postal Service is conducting studies of approximately 3,700 retail offices to determine customer needs.

After an office is placed on the list of potential closures, the community served by that office will have 60 days to file their comments. If an office is to be closed, appeals will be heard by the independent Postal Regulatory Commission.

:slap: seriously, of the 2700 Post Offices out there, you close the one that represents the start of the postal service in the US? and the one that has the museum in it? Seriously?

LATB
07-27-2011, 10:10am
city prolly has plans to make a Michael Vick shrine in that upstairs museum. :lol:

Yerf Dog
07-27-2011, 10:10am
:slap: seriously, of the 2700 Post Offices out there, you close the one that represents the start of the postal service in the US? and the one that has the museum in it? Seriously?

If it's not cost effective, it's not cost effective.

http://www.thevettebarn.com/forums/images/icons/bilmem.gif Make the whole thing a museum.

Damn Internet. :cuss:

mikeg826
07-27-2011, 10:14am
If it's not cost effective, it's not cost effective.

http://www.thevettebarn.com/forums/images/icons/bilmem.gif Make the whole thing a museum.

Damn Internet. :cuss:

With all the $$ you're saving with the other 3,699 closures, I'm sure you could operate one at a lost, especially when it is the one most closely representative of the start of the service? A large amount of traffic is there from tourist visiting the independence park area.

Yerf Dog
07-27-2011, 10:29am
With all the $$ you're saving with the other 3,699 closures, I'm sure you could operate one at a lost, especially when it is the one most closely representative of the start of the service? A large amount of traffic is there from tourist visiting the independence park area.

I hear ya. My girlfriend works at the post office. There's not a whole lot of logic floating around that place. :skep:

BuckyThreadkiller
07-27-2011, 10:32am
There is stupid and then there is Post Office Stupid.

VatorMan
07-27-2011, 10:34am
They could turn it into another Belgium beer bar or Cheesesteak shop. The 50 you guys have isn't enough.

mikeg826
07-27-2011, 10:37am
They could turn it into another Belgium beer bar or Cheesesteak shop. The 50 you guys have isn't enough.

hater...

:D

sxeC6
07-27-2011, 10:38am
Hey, what did you expect from the "City of Brotherly Love", which is as dead as ole Ben.

VatorMan
07-27-2011, 10:40am
hater...

:D

Not at all. I tried to visit all of them the last time I was there. Had a blast. :dance::dance:

LATB
07-27-2011, 10:41am
Hey, what did you expect from the "City of Brotherly Love", which is as dead as ole Ben.

there is plenty of the "brother" part...just not much love :sadangel:

mikeg826
07-27-2011, 10:41am
Not at all. I tried to visit all of them the last time I was there. Had a blast. :dance::dance:

which ones, the bars or the cheesesteak places?

Bill
07-27-2011, 11:09am
With all the $$ you're saving with the other 3,699 closures, I'm sure you could operate one at a loss, especially when it is the one most closely representative of the start of the service? A large amount of traffic is there from tourist visiting the independence park area.

This attitude is the exact reason we have an out of control national debt. Do you think Walmart keeps open a few unprofitable stores just for sentimental reasons?

"Well, this little bit of overspending won't make much difference to the overall federal budget."

No, that attitude is wrong. Stop every little bit of wasteful spending. Every. Little. Bit.

Also on the hit list should be the smallest post office in the US, in Florida near Ocala, IIRC. Sure, it's fun and cute to see a tiny cargo container built out into the country's smallest post office, but it is less cute when you realize that it is staffed by a full time employee paid for by your stamp money.

Cut it. The tourism industry will still survive.

sxeC6
07-27-2011, 11:12am
I say do away with the Post Office Department. All I get are bills and junk mail anyway. :ack:

LATB
07-27-2011, 11:14am
I say do away with the Post Office Department. All I get are bills and junk mail anyway. :ack:

bulk mail is the only real business the USPS has :yesnod:

Bucwheat
07-27-2011, 1:44pm
Considering every little town in the country has one,I think we can afford to lose a few.

onedef92
07-27-2011, 1:51pm
Them mofos lost what? $3 billion last year alone and shit?