USPS Gives Push to Printing
USPS is making a concerted push to drive sales of printed goods this season, selling gift boxes already in printed wrapping paper, linking on-line to on demand greeting card printing, and testing retail kiosks in 500 outlets.
Bill Esler, Editor in Chief -- Graphic Arts Online, November 25, 2009
U.S. Postal Service is giving the struggling printing industry a hand,
retailing printed goods including boxes already in printed wrapping
paper and selling on demand greeting card printing. USPS will expand a
test of retail greeting card kiosks from the 500 already in place to 1,500 locations next quarter. The efforts recognize the closely linked fate of printing and mailing. The efforts will extend beyond the holiday
The USPS test of retailing greeting cards, announced the end of last month , is already under way at 500 post offices, with plans to expand the offering to 1,000 additional locations.Thegreeting card kiosks are being sourced by Hallmark's Sunrise unit. The Sunrise brand of Hallmark, which itself outsources significant volumes of printing, is also printing the pre-wrapped boxes.
USPS offerings of on-demand card printing is handled by Berkeley, CA-based Cardstore.com. The on-demand printing service provides offerings for both consumers, but also for businesses, including seasonal cards and other direct mail printing services.Founded in 1999,Cardstore.com says it has printed over 50 million pieces, and is funded by venture capital firm The Roda Group.
In addition to the new retailing efforts, USPS also parcels out a massive amount of stamp printing, continuously expanding the designs and target markets.For the seasonal effort, USPS ordered the printing of 2.11 billion holiday stamps this year.
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The USPS sends an individual to your house to pick up your message. They hand deliver it anywhere in the country in just a few days for pennies. What greater value can be found anywhere?
MCB - 2009-3-12 10:28:54 EST -
When you take into consideration how much mail is processed and compare the cost of USPS to the competition, it's a great value for the money. Are you saying that you have never had an issue with Fedex or UPS?
mek - 2009-25-11 13:18:26 EST -
I'm not sure they shouldn't get out of the mailing business also. Maybe they could split it with FedEx and UPS - who might do well to get out of the print business as well.
I also wonder when another ground carrier service will start an ad campaign in the printing industry to use them - since they don't compete with us like KedEx/Kinkos?VistaPrint and UPS?Boxes Etc.
Byron Boyd - 2009-25-11 12:30:40 EST -
I want the post office to get out of the printing business their job is to deliver the mail. Next they'll want to sell automobiles and give haircuts.
Art Hayden - 2009-25-11 12:07:41 EST
USPS Gives Boost to Printing
02/09/2010Postal Service Retailing Greeting Cards
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