GREENSBORO, N.C. — The recent WFMY News 2 story about the US Postal Service buying the Greensboro building it has been renting is getting a lot of comments and shares.
The building is the post office on Murrow Boulevard in Greensboro. It's been there for years and years. It's 83,000 square feet. According to Guilford County records, the USPS bought the building for $4.4 million.
Come to find out, the USPS leases and pays rent on 23,000 properties around the US. The agency only owned 8,404 properties in 2020. Check out their fast facts on Size & Scope.
Why? Full transparency, my dad is a former Postmaster. He told me the thinking is the USPS is in the mail business, not the land business.
It's often cheaper to rent and if you outgrow the building, you don't have to worry about selling it.
As soon as WFMY posted this story on our Facebook page, folks made comments like this: The USPS bought nothing. The American taxpayers did.
That is a commonly held belief, but it's factually wrong. The fact is the USPS gets zero of your tax dollars. Really. The agency is not funded by the government. How does the USPS pay for its workforce and operations? It's all through the price of stamps and services.
According to the USPS, if the USPS were a private sector company, the postal service would rank 46th in the 2020 Fortune 500.
In the 2020 Global Fortune 500 list, the USPS would be ranked 141st.
WHY ARE STAMPS SO MUCH?
The postal service doesn't get to decide how much to charge. Congress, which created the postal service, also controls the purse strings. It's literally an act of congress to change the price of a stamp.