A post office inside a store is better than no post office at all, many rural customers are finding

As the U.S. Postal Service looks for ways to cut costs, including efforts to end Saturday first-class mail, many rural towns have suffered, with post offices closing or reducing their hours. That has led to a resurgence in village post offices, located inside retail establishments. They are most common in Kentucky, where nearly one-sixth of the nation's 610 VPOs are located, Kristy Robinson Horine reports for KyForward. (Horine photo: Store in North Middletown provides postal services)

“Kentucky has so many because it’s very rural, and we have many post offices that are going through reduction in hours,” David Walton, a regional USPS spokesperson, told Horine. “Here, we have gone into what we call a ‘post plan.’ We go into low-performing areas, have a community meeting and give customers a choice.” Walton acknowledged that VPOs are an alternative developed after “a push-back from communities that did not want to lose their post offices” when the USPS proposed closing thousands in 2012.

To qualify for VPO status, "there has to be an existing retail or business outlet already in the community," Horine writes. "In Kentucky, VPOs are found in bait and tackle shops, convenience stores, and gas stations. VPOs are usually located in areas where the existing post office has closed or has been forced to reduce hours. Employees of the VPOs are not considered post-office employees although background checks are conducted by the USPS to ensure a measure of integrity that the organization has been known for throughout the years."

"VPOs can sell the most popular USPS items such as forever stamps and flat rate shipping boxes," Horine writes. "They can even offer Priority Mail services, and some have banks of post office boxes on the premises where patrons can pick up their mail. VPOs will not personally deliver mail to customers, and the packages, once received in the host VPO establishment, are picked up by bona fide postal employees and taken to a central post office." (Read more)