South Bay : Postal Service Opens Retail Store in Westchester

Once hard-to-find Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe stamps are now readily available at a U.S. Postal Service retail store dedicated exclusively to mail.

The Postal Store opened for business at 7381 La Tijera Blvd. in Westchester Thursday and is the first in the chain of Postal Service stores to open in the Los Angeles area.

The store is designed like a retail outlet with cases featuring items such as commemorative stamps, postal memorabilia and mail supplies. Although it offers traditional postal services, the emphasis is on selling goods rather than services. Because customers can select what they want off the shelf, it also saves on service time.

“If a person is looking for postal items, the store will make it easier to get them,” said Postal Service spokesman Larr Dozier. “It will also shorten lines at other post offices.”

The store opened on the site of the old postal station that had gotten too small for its large customer base, Dozier said.

The Postal Service expanded the site and has reopened using the store concept that has been successful in cities such as Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. Dozier said the stores will be the wave of the future.

The store is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.