Stamp price increases reflect ongoing inflation
As prices on everyday goods rise across the country, even the mail is unable to escape unscathed.
Stamp prices are set to increase Sunday following an April 6 announcement from the United States Postal Service.
The new rates will see the price of a “forever” stamp increase from 58 cents to 60 cents, a domestic postcard from 40 cents to 44 cents, and an international letter from $1.30 to $1.40. Additional ounces per letter will increase from 20 cents to 24 cents.
The price increases were approved by the Governors of the U.S. Postal Service.
“As inflation and increased operating expenses continue, these price adjustments will help with the implementation of the Delivering for America plan, including a $40 billion investment in core Postal Service infrastructure over the next 10 years,” a statement from the USPS read. “With the new prices, the Postal Service will continue to provide the lowest letter-mail postage rates in the industrialized world and offer a great value in shipping.”
The Delivering for America plan was released in 2021 as a 10-year plan for the Postal Service to achieve financial sustainability.
The statement added that the rate of increase in this price jump is approximately 6.5%, which is “lower than the Bureau of Labor Statistics annual inflation rate of 7.9% as of the end of February.”
At the Evans City post office, clerk Tyler Hrip said that there hasn’t been a huge increase in people coming to buy stamps before the price increase, but some customers are aware of the upcoming changes.
“There’s been a couple of people per day coming in and saying they’ll get more before the price changes,” Hrip said. “There hasn’t been too many.”
Mark Gordon, Butler County chief of economic development and planning, said no one has reached out to him specifically on the topic of increased stamp prices, but that this may be indicative of the impact that other aspects of inflation have had on people’s wallets.
“Clearly, there’s a lot of disenchantment across all the businesses, and I think across all residents, with the spiraling inflation that’s going on,” Gordon said. “When you think about what’s happening at the pump, with the price of gasoline and diesel fuel, I think a lot of these things get overshadowed by that. They get kind of lost in all of that.”
The price of shipping packages through the USPS is not scheduled to change with the rate increase, though prices for shipping services products did increase approximately 3.1% for priority mail service and 3.1% for priority mail express service at the beginning of 2022. Competitors FedEx and UPS also increased their shipping pricing at the beginning of the year.
Gordon said that whether businesses use the USPS or another company such as FedEx tends to depend on size and timing.
“Most midsize businesses have logistics providers that handle a lot of that, and they use the least-cost options,” Gordon said. “I think the smaller entities more than likely use the least-cost options, but if there is a particular timing sensitivity, that might take them in a different direction.”
Though the changes make up only a few cents difference, Gordon said, they reflect the impact of inflation in the county.
“I think (people) are struggling all the way around, just on the uses of their cash,” he said. “The bigger issues are at the forefront right now, but it is a sign of our times.”
