Steptoe Post Office moves into Friendly Mart digs

Steptoe's Friendly Mart is the town's one-stop shop for coffee, smokes, beer, groceries and slices of beef jerky.

Friday it will also become the town's Village Post Office. Now, the Friendly Mart will sell stamps and flat-rate packages in addition to renting out mailboxes.

Post boxes were installed Tuesday, as was a mailbox on the Friendly Mart's front step. Postal officials will have a ceremony to christen the agency's new office at 10 a.m. Friday.

Ed Patton who works at the Friendly Mart said Tuesday he was still unsure what the new duties will entail.

"They really haven't told us too much. I guess we're selling stamps and boxes. But I haven't gotten a whole lot of training or anything yet," said Patton.

The Friendly Mart will become the Postal Service's second Village Post Office in Washington, replacing the full service Post Office at Cooper's Corner antique store.

The change is part of the Postal Service's efforts to fix its troubled finances. It is some $9 billion in the red this year, and is studying the closure of upwards of 3,700 post offices across the country.

Red's Hop In Market in Malone in Grays Harbor County was the first Village Post Office in the nation to open up last October.

"So far, it's working real good. I've got no complaints," said John Kim, co-owner of Red's.

Kim told the Gazette the post office has worked well for his store. He receives additional revenue from the Postal Service payments and has seen the number of customers increase as they pick up their mail or send off a package and buy something at the store while they are there.

"People stop by every day, so it's been a big thing for us," he said.

Carol Rebstock, manager of Post Office Operations in Spokane, said putting the post office inside the Friendly Mart will be much cheaper to operate than the post office that occupied Cooper's Corner for the previous few decades.

The Steptoe post office was costing the postal service more than $29,000 a year to operate.

The postal service will pay the Friendly Mart about $2,000 dollars a year for its new role.

Instead of mail being delivered in bundles out of a contract truck, Steptoe's mail will be sorted in Colfax and delivered by a rural route carrier who passes through town to deliver mail to residents of rural Steptoe.

Sorting of the mail before it hits Steptoe will be a big cost saver, said Rebstock.

Donna Cooper served for 29 years as Steptoe's postmaster in addition to manning her antique store until retiring in 2009.

Since then, part-time employees have staffed the post office.

Cooper said the agency wanted her to host the Village Post Office, but she declined.

"I'm retired. I'm done being here all the time," she said.

Cooper added she was glad to have the post office leaving her store, which is attached to her family's house.

"We still have to put in oil and pay the electricity out there. I'm done heating that place."

The post office mail boxes and a gigantic satellite dish will be moved, but not quite yet.

Because Congress placed a moratorium through May on post office closures, the Cooper's Corner post office will remain in operation through that time.

Though mail will be delivered to the Friendly Mart boxes, full service shipping will still be available during the Cooper's Corner post office's regular hours.

A report attached the proposal to close the Steptoe Post Office said 11 retail transactions which account for 11 minutes of work came through the Cooper's Corner spot each day. Receipts dwindled from $19,367 in 2008 to $12,024.

When and if the Cooper's Corner spot is officially closed, postal customers will have to ship packages that don't fit in the flat-rate boxes to a larger post office, largest of which is Colfax, 11 miles away.

Patton's main concern is that he will pick up some of the infamous traits of postal employees.

"Do I worry about going postal? No more than before," he said.

But, the town will retain its Steptoe mailing address, in addition to its zip code, 99174.