THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 4, 1995 TAG: 9501040392
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
In Elizabeth City Tuesday, scores of stamp-buyers wanting to purchase a dwindling supply of 3-cent stamps stood in lobby lines that sometimes extended outdoors.
``This is worse than the bank,'' said one customer, standing behind about 19 others in a line that remained constant through most of the day at the federal building downtown. ``I'm trying to get two 3-cent stamps. That's all I need.''
Postal workers also had more mail than usual to deliver because of bulk-mailers and business people who sent items earlier than usual to avoid this week's rate hike.
``This is the heaviest mail volume I've seen in my 29-year career,'' said Elizabeth City Postmaster Howard Hodges.
The city's two post offices were expected to run out of 3-cent stamps by today or tomorrow. Supplies should be replenished by week's end, Hodges said Tuesday afternoon.
In Nags Head, the post office ran out of 3-cent stamps Saturday, leaving some very unhappy customers, one clerk said. By Tuesday, the post office was restocked - with lines all day.
Kill Devil Hills Post Office sold ``at least 10,000 3-cent stamps'' Tuesday, Postmaster Troy Greene said at 4 p.m. ``We're almost completely out. I think I can make it through the next half-hour of business today. But if I don't get a new shipment in here tomorrow, we'll run out for sure.
``Usually, the first day after a long holiday weekend is twice as busy as normal anyway,'' Greene said. ``With this rate increase falling on New Year's Day, it made it much, much worse.
``Today was tough. This was one of the worst days we've had at the walk-up windows. It's been about what we'd usually expect on April 15. (the federal tax deadline). I had three clerks on the window all day (usually 1 1/2) and customers were still lined up. No one waited more than about five minutes, though, which was our goal.''
Normally, Greene said, rate increases do not fall near holidays. People with full books or rolls of 29-cent stamps can exchange them for the new 32-cent variety - if they pay the difference, Greene said.
Meanwhile, in Chesapeake, anyone calling the station manager at the main post office Tuesday afternoon had to dial again. He was out in the parking lot, directing traffic.
``We have three people in the parking lot directing traffic, and Battlefield Boulevard is a mess,'' said Ica Carey, a postal clerk.
Even the police helped during the morning. ``It's always like this when the rates go up,'' Carey added. ``When things change like that, I think people panic.''
Carey and her harried colleagues in post offices all over Hampton Roads were inundated with customers Tuesday.
The rate hike, beginning at 12:01 a.m. Sunday raised first-class postage from 29 to 32 cents. Preoccupied during Christmas and New Year's and lulled by a three-day holiday that ended Monday, people were suddenly desperate to get bills in the mail and precisely the right postage on each letter - not a penny more, not a penny less.
``Most people are coming in for 3-cent stamps. They wouldn't think of putting two 29-cent stamps on a letter,'' Carey said.
Certainly not Janet Ragan of Virginia Beach.
``What is it today?'' asked Ragan as she marched around the outdoor self-service postal station in the Pembroke Mall parking lot in Virginia Beach.
Ragan fingered a handful of coins and studied the instructions on the stamp machines. She and her husband, Harvey, had driven first to the Lynnhaven station on Viking Drive, then to the Witchduck station, in search of stamps. Snaking lines of waiting cars discouraged them at both places. They ended up at Pembroke looking for 1-cent stamps.
But they aren't sold singly there.
No sale. Ragan pocketed her money and strode back to her car.
``They don't have any,'' she called to her husband.
Customer relations coordinators for the Postal Service kept a close eye on Tuesday's stamp rush. Despite public fears that post offices would run out of 1-cent stamps or even the new G, or 32-cent, stamp, Hervey Trimyer, customer relations coordinator for Norfolk and Chesapeake, said the bigger problem was parking. by CNB