07/02/2002

Somewhere, someone just paid $40 to have their dog groomed. Plenty of others just paid $50 for their cell phone bill. Or $60. And didn't even blink.

Which raises a question. It's about the Post Office.

In a world where we blithely accept $29 DVDs, $45 baseball tickets and $80 sneakers, why is there such outrage at paying 37 cents for a stamp?

You've probably read that the price of mailing a letter has gone up. Effective Sunday, it went from 34 cents to 37.

People seem to be shocked. They see it as highway robbery. American Online is running a poll asking if consumers will rebel by sending less mail.

I'd like to respond by saying something scandalous:

Yes, it strikes me that even at 37 cents, mailing a letter remains one of the best deals in America

Quick, name me something else that sells for 37 cents or under.

No, not a cup of coffee. That's a buck-fifteen, unless you get your usual latte, macchiato or frappuccino at Starbuck's, at which point it's more like $3 or $4.

Not candy bars, either. It's been years since you could buy a good one for 37 cents or under.

Newspapers cost more than 37 cents.

Even water costs more.

In other words, we'll pay $2 for a bottle of what you can get free from any faucet, but three more cents for a stamp is unacceptable.

Plenty of people routinely leave three cents behind on a counter because they don't want to lug around the change, but let the government ask them for those same pennies, and it's a disgrace.

I know it's not fashionable to defend, of all things, the Post Office. Most call it a typical badly run bureaucracy with employees that are on the verge of, well, going postal.

In truth, during decades of getting letters, I don't recall any mailman or mail lady missing a day. Okay, perhaps during blizzards that shut down the city, but that's it. Show me another service that's been as reliable for as long. And these people do it while each carrying 64 pounds of Sharper Image catalogs per house per day.

I'll admit last winter was mild, but give them a break, there was anthrax going around.

Think about what you get for your 37 cents -- letters sent thousands of miles, usually in a few days. Often, they'll go across town in only a day -- for about a 30th of what Fedex would charge.

In an age when doctors no longer make house calls, and cable guys make you wait from 9 to noon for their arrival, it's also a rare personal touch to still get mail through your door six days a week.

I've never understood those who say the post office is unreliable. I think this is based on stories once every year or two about a lost letter being found in a corner of a post office and delivered 25 years later. But normally, well, name me another country where you would feel as confident mailing a letter as the U.S.?

This doesn't mean I'll stop making fun of the post office. It's often a tempting target. For example, I've never liked their system of issuing new stamps with just a letter on them instead of the price. This has led me to have many old "letter" stamps in a drawer, with no idea what each is worth. Can't they wait a few weeks until the new ones are ready?

And there always seems to be a long line when you go to the post office because only one or two workers are helping customers. The government should hire a junior drugstore cashier to teach postal workers to lean into the microphone and ask for extra help at the front counters.

But I still say 37 cents is a deal.

If you disagree, let's meet over a $2 bottled water and a $4 frappuccino after getting our dogs groomed for $40, and we'll debate the high cost of a stamp.

Mark Patinkin can be reached at mpatinkin@projo.com.