New Post Office option opens in West Ashely

CHARLESTON - Steve Hastings is excited about his new job.

In addition to owning and running three Liberty Tax locations, one in Orange Grove Plaza at the corner of Orange Grove Road and Sam Rittenberg Boulevard, he is also now the owner of three Contract Postal Units.

"We can do almost everything the traditional Post Office locations can do, except P.O. boxes and money orders," Hastings said. "For us the benefit is obvious it's the foot traffic."

The United States Postal Service has been setting up CPUs for more than 100 years now. Originally they began as ways to provide services to rural areas, according to Harry Spratlin, Southeast District Communications Coordinator with the postal service. In more recent times the CPUs have migrated into more urband and subrban districts where existing Post Office locations have seen demand rise to the point of significantly increasing wait times for customers.  

"Now in densely populated areas, because we are rated on wait times by an external secret shopper type program, when we get low scores, our retail location folks go out and look for contract sites," Spratlin said.

In Hasting's case, he sought out the CPU program and applied to host his CPUs. Spratlin said that is becoming more common, but that the Postal Service still investigates each potential location to ensure each is within an area that has a busy post office and is conveniently located for customers.

"Our location is more convenient," Hastings said. "People can hit us before or after work, and we're open on Saturday."

The CPUs generally have longer hours than the existing Post Office locations. Some are located in grocery stores that are open seven days a week. There is even one in a truck stop that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Spratlin said.

The increased traffic in Hasting's offices - he worked with USPS to set up CPUs at his other tax offices on Rivers Avenue and in Festival Center in North Charleston - allows him to keep people on staff at the offices year-round now rather than just during tax season.

"It allows us to meet people all the time," he said.

The hope for Hastings is that some of those postal customers will also turn into tax customers.

"It allows us to meet people over and over so they get accustomed to talking to the tax preparers who work the Post Office counter too," he said. "So they are answering tax questions up there all the time."

The Orange Grove Plaza CPU opened last Wednesday, but the Liberty Tax office at Festival Center has been operating a USPS CPU for four months, and the amount of traffic the unit has brought into Hastings' business has been unbelievable, he said.

"The people that really like us are the eBayers," he said. "They'll come in with 200-300 packages and the locations are easier to get in and out of and they aren't as busy as the traditional Post Offices."

Hastings first encountered the CPU concept in Mount Pleasant where one is located in a tobacco store.

"My wife pulled into this tobacco shop and neither of us smoke so I said, 'What are you doing?' And she said, 'I'm going to the Post Office.' I said, 'This isn't a Post Office it's a tobacco shop.' She said, 'No, it's a Post Office.' And pointed to the sign, so I said, 'I've got to see this.'"

"It was fascinating."

Hastings said the Postal Service works very hard to make the CPUs user friendly to the retail locations running the offices after it scrutinizes the proposed location to make sure it is a good fit.

"They work well for what we wanted, which was to bring people in and meet them," Hastings said. "We provide [the customers] convenience, [the CPUs] provide us with what we wanted, which is exposure, and the Post Office gets great customer service."