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I called my aunt Helen to see if she got the meat I sent to her. She lives in a place called Red Springs. It is what it sounds like. Anyway, she sent me a thank you card but needed to explain why it would be late: https://twitter.com/surlyurbanist/status/1249401053063200768
Their post office closed during the cost saving moves about five years ago. Now she has to take the senior transportation a town over to go to a physical post office. That mail is routed through Charlotte she says, even if mailing something just across town.
She still prefers the USPS though because it is affordable. I know it’s the best way to get things to her. UPS & FedEx doesn’t like the roads she lives off of. They throw the packages anywhere and she is almost 90.
Whether a private carrier can be made to serve her better than USPS, I don’t know. I do know that the reasons for experimenting with that seem to be pure ideology while my Aunt Helen’s seem to be practical.
Anyway, maybe private mail service is how they do it in Europe but I can’t help thinking the U.S. might have some special kind of, shall we say character, that might make that a complicated comparison
