It’s No Holiday for Postal Staff or Patrons

To U.S. Postal Service workers in Ventura County, Christmas means increased workloads; to post office patrons, it means waiting in long lines.

As the holiday season kicks into high gear, about 1,400 postal workers countywide are putting in longer hours to deal with the Christmas crush. Nationwide, mail handlers are expected to deliver 4.9 billion cards and 109 million packages during the holiday season.

“You get very tired,” said Rick Lopez, a Ventura postal clerk for nearly 15 years. “You just live with it. It’s only once a year that we do it. I don’t mind.”

But massive amounts of mail also mean long lines at post offices across the county.

Mark von Kronemann of Thousand Oaks brought in four large packages at 5 p.m. to mail to relatives and friends of his daughter. He was not pleased with the wait.

“It’s a real pain,” he said. “I own my own business. I have to wait 45 minutes just to buy a roll of stamps.”

Von Kronemann said the post office should have a special window to accept packages during the holiday season.

Not a bad idea, but also not possible, according to Edward Kroot, supervisor of customer services for the Thousand Oaks Post Office. Such a move would only take away a badly needed window clerk handling regular mail, he said.

That office has already added two window clerks this season.

“It’s very busy,” Kroot said. “We’re trying the best we can to accommodate everybody.”

Many customers avoid long waits by staying away from the post office during the lunch hour and after 3 p.m.

“Someone told me she had to wait a half hour,” said Ventura resident Theresa Maynard, who mailed four packages and a stack of letters to relatives on a recent morning. “The line was out the door.”

Susan Lang of Ventura said she tries to avoid branch post offices altogether during the holiday season.

“I try to go to a satellite post office and [do so] first thing in the morning,” she said, before mailing 50 cards to friends and relatives. “I’m not a waiting person. I normally do everything before Thanksgiving.”

Others are willing to pay higher shipping costs with private mail services to avoid long lines.

Ruby Grant, co-owner of Mail Boxes Etc. in Ventura, said she handles twice as many orders during the holiday season.

“If you buy a [gift] at a store, we package it and send it out,” she said. “And very seldom does a customer have to wait. We are a convenience store for shipping and mailing.”