Irate 2 Cents’ Worth on Penny Postal Hike

Post offices hummed Monday as crowds of people braved long lines and frustrating waits to snap up one-cent stamps on the first business day of the latest postal rate increase.

In Southern California and around the nation, people awoke needing to post their mail. For that they needed new stamps, and the resulting onslaughts provoked a stamp-buying frenzy that had post offices calling out urgent orders for resupplies.

The increase was only one copper penny, from 32 cents to 33 cents, the lowest rate increase in history. But it seemed to incite a panic among the stamp-buying public that outstripped past rate increases, said some longtime postal workers.

Even though the Postal Service printed 2 billion of the so-called one-penny makeup stamps, many people acted as if supplies might run out and made a mad grab for them, buying dozens and even hundreds at a clip.

Lines snaked and parking lots were jammed from Ventura to Orange County. A postal official in Washington said business was brisk nationwide.

Regina Demus, a supervisor at the main post office in Dallas, said her window tellers were selling out, despite ordering more than half a million new penny stamps.

“A lot of people are surprised because they didn’t know about the rate change,” said Anna Alvarez, a worker at the Winnetka branch, who noted that customers were waiting twice as long for services.

“A lot of people don’t know about it . . . but it’s been out there on the TV and in the newspapers,” said Wally Bautista, a postal worker in the Canoga Park office. “They’ll know when they get their mail back.”

With the long lines and the shortage of one-cent stamps, it appeared that some post offices were caught off-guard.

“I think they were not prepared. They could have given us more warning,” said Joanne Jackman, 41, a Culver City resident. “I’ve been waiting for over an hour.”

Many who thronged post offices were customers like Sam Kim, who walked into the Worldway Postal Center near Los Angeles International Airport with a mission. After a relatively quick transaction, he walked away with 500 of the penny stamps that will allow his air freight company to post its mail this week.

Getting the stamps was only half the problem, though.

“It’s kind of a hassle, ‘cause now somebody will have to stick on an extra stamp,” Kim said. “Maybe we should just get a postage meter.”

At the 24-hour Worldway office, people crowded around change machines so they could use the stamp vending machines and avoid long lines at the windows. Each of the seven tellers started the day with 20,000 of the new penny stamps.

But by midday, postal officials were forced to call out for a resupply of 300,000 more.

“They’ve been going out of the [vending] machines and teller windows like crazy,” Worldway supervisor Cecilia Bratton said of the penny stamps. “We haven’t had many complaints. The lines are not too long here and most people knew this was coming.”

In fact, the first 33-cent stamps were unveiled last week in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, depicting a colorful red and gold rabbit for the Chinese Year of the Rabbit. In addition, the post office has printed about 10 billion nondenominated H stamps to cover the 33-cent rate, as well as penny stamps that can be added to leftover 32-cent stamps. New designs will be printed in coming weeks.

Ample Supply of Stamps Assured

Los Angeles postal officials said 10 million of the new one-cent stamps were distributed to local post offices in the last week. But not to worry. Twenty million more are stored at a central warehouse.

“We have lots of stamps,” said postal spokesman Larry Dozier. “If a post office depletes its stock it’s just a matter of reordering and they should have it the same day or the next. If people are running into long lines they should let things die down and not worry.”

That was little consolation, though, to the thousands who crammed their neighborhood post offices Monday.

In Thousand Oaks, Tami Urtheil looked quizzically at the vending machine as she tried to figure out how to buy 100 one-cent stamps. Because the machine would only dispense 10 at a time, she stood patiently and entered the code 10 times.

“Where’s the one-cent machine?” asked Debbie Weber, bustling into the packed Orange County central processing post office in Santa Ana.

Having survived the crush in the parking lot, she joined the back of one of several snaking lines, ready to feed bills into a machine and walk away with a long strip of penny stamps.

“I’ve still got Christmas cards I haven’t mailed. I’m not happy,” said Weber, 43, of Newport Beach. “Going up one cent? I think it’s silly. They should raise it every five years, and take it right up to 35 cents. Forget these pennies.”

Lynn Greeley of Coto de Caza said, “I feel like we just did this. We just blinked and they raised the price.”

In fact, the last increase was a 3-cent increase in 1995. Postal officials said the latest increase would be used for new facilities, equipment and staff training.

Others agreed the extra penny would be well worth it if services were improved.

“I don’t think [the increase is] enough. One cent is ridiculous. Everything else goes up a ton,” said Cletus Scollon, 79, of Canoga Park.

Scollon said the Postal Service could use the extra revenue to provide more services to cut the amount of time customers spend waiting in line.

“I’ve been here lots of times, and there’ve been a lot of people always waiting, waiting, waiting,” he said.

Scollon may get his wish. Los Angeles postal officials are about to launch a campaign to get customers in and out of line within five minutes, said spokesman Larry Dozier.

Times staff writers Janet Wilson in Orange County, Neda Raouf in the San Fernando Valley and correspondent Jennifer Hamm in Ventura contributed to this story.