Due to technology trends and the economy The United States Postal Service (USPS) is not as large as it once was, yet is still a valuable and important part of our society. Thought they deserved some much needed recognizition. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service
Revenue decline
Declining mail volume is a symptom of the weak national economy[citation needed], particularly related to the financial and housing industries, and to trends toward the use of electronic mail. First Class mail volume (which is protected by legal monopoly) peaked in 2001[30] and has declined 29% from 1998 to 2008, due to the increasing use of email and the World Wide Web for correspondence and business transactions.[31]
FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS) directly compete with USPS express mail and package delivery services, making nationwide deliveries of urgent letters and packages.
Lower volume means lower revenues to support the fixed commitment to deliver to every address once a day, six days a week. In response, the USPS has increased productivity each year from 2000 to 2007,[32] through increased automation, route re-optimization, and facility consolidation.[31] Despite these efforts, the organization saw an $8.5 billion budget shortfall in 2010,[33] and was losing money at a rate of about $3 billion per quarter in 2011.[34]
To cut costs, the U.S. Postal Service proposes to close as many as 3,700 small post offices and replacing some of them as 'village post offices' to offer the most basic mail services at lower costs inside such places as grocery stores and drugstores with signs — 'Village Post Office' — in the window since August 2011. The Postal Service will pay Mini-mart about $2,000 a year. One benefit of the new policy is service hours which are longer than the old post office.[35] The closure of half of all mail processing centers in the first half of 2012 will result an overall slowing of delivery and the elimination of next-day delivery for First-Class mail.[36]
CAUTION BEES!
You've been warned! 
