Tuesday, October 14, 2025
USPS is modernizing retail lobbies to improve the customer experience
The goal: to make Post Office visits faster, easier and more intuitive
Sorting and delivery center lobbies aren’t the only USPS locations getting a retail makeover these days.
The organization is also modernizing retail lobbies at many stand-alone Post Offices, aiming to make it easier for customers to pick up their mail and packages and ship items faster.
The upgraded lobbies feature:
• Smart lockers where customers can pick up packages at any time, day or night. About 700 locations now offer these lockers.
• Enhanced self-service kiosks that allow customers to weigh items, print labels, purchase supplies and mail packages. About 2,600 locations have these kiosks, which have been shown to cut lobby wait times by 40 percent.
• Digital information displays that guide customers through available services, reducing confusion and helping them complete tasks quickly.
• Streamlined layouts that emphasize an open design and improve traffic flow, reduce wait times and make supplies easier to find.
• Government services that allow Post Office lobbies to serve as hubs for other federal agencies, enabling customers to handle multiple tasks — such as passports, fingerprinting and identity proofing — under one roof.
Additionally, USPS is offering a Rapid Drop mobile application that allows users to store prepaid shipping labels, find the nearest Post Office, track packages and subscribe to notifications, among other features.
“Modernizing our retail spaces is about meeting customers where they are today,” said Tracy Raymond, the Postal Service’s retail operations director. “People expect speed, clarity and technology-driven convenience, and that’s what our new lobbies deliver — while still offering the trusted, in-person attention that defines the Postal Service.”
Post Offices in several cities, including Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale, FL, now feature upgraded lobbies. The initial phase of retail modernization will conclude by the end of October, with more locations set for modernization next year.
The upgrades are part of the Postal Service’s long-range Delivering for America transformation plan to revamp operations, improve service and attain financial sustainability.
“It’s exciting to bring new capabilities across multiple platforms to our retail lobbies and watch our customers get in and out quicker at times that work for them,” said Robert Dixon, the organization’s delivery and retail modernization senior director.
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Heroes
She was ‘overwhelmed with happiness’
This employee used CPR to save a motorist’s life
Wichita, KS, Letter Carrier Kerry Hurd had just finished delivering on her route when she saw a man pulling a child out of a car and sensed something was wrong.
Hurd pulled her vehicle over to the side of the road and heard someone yell for help. She ran toward the car and saw that the woman in the driver’s seat wasn’t breathing.
“She was turning blue,” Hurd recalled.
The Postal Service employee quickly enlisted two men nearby to remove the woman from the car. She performed CPR on her until paramedics arrived.
The woman was taken to a nearby hospital and she continues to recover.
“When I later found out she is alive, I was overwhelmed with happiness,” Hurd said.
Employees featured in “Heroes” receive letters of commendation through the Postmaster General Heroes’ Program. The nomination form is available on Blue.
Week in Review
Here’s what Link covered Oct. 5-11
User-friendly lobbies and temporary price changes made news
Link kicked off last week with a look at the upgraded retail lobbies at USPS sorting and delivery centers.
Rapid drop-off stations, smart lockers, self-service kiosks and updated signage are just a few of the improvements. “We want a retail lobby that customers look forward to going to,” said Maylee Kaiyuan, the retail modernization effort’s acting manager.
We also ran reminders on the USPS temporary price changes that took effect Oct. 5 and Hatch Act guidelines for political participation; highlighted a successful USPS Office of Inspector General prosecution of a contract fraud case; and ran features on Columbus Day and Girls Love Mail, a nonprofit that sends letters of support to breast cancer patients.
The “People” column spotlighted Jolena Kees, a Grayson, KY, rural carrier who drives one of the longest routes in the country; and “Off the Clock” told the story of Carri Honz, a USPS retail associate in Lincoln, NE, who rehabilitates raptors and cares for Halsey, a wounded great horned owl.
In “Heroes,” we told you about the lifesaving efforts of Kerry Hurd, a Wichita, KS, letter carrier who administered CPR to a customer; and we spotlighted four employees honored as heroes recently by the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association — Alex Tomasello, Keri VanEtta, Lisa Ann Wagner and David Hamilton.
Hamilton received top honors as the union’s hero of the year for rescuing a customer and her pet from a dog attack.
“This experience is absolutely the pinnacle of my career,” he said at the Orlando, FL, awards ceremony.
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