In 2012, the U.S. Postal Service had a $3.2 billion loss in it's second quarter (Jan. 1- March 31). This is a $1 billion increase from the same quarter the year before.
Technology has created a hardship for the U.S. Postal Service. What used
to be sent in a letter or package is now emailed and text-ed. In other words, waiting days for a gift to arrive somewhere is no longer acceptable, and the Postal Service is not as popular. To combat these financial problems, they have stopped doing Saturday delivery and are creating a clothing line.
Yes, a clothing line. Call "'Rain Heat & Snow'", it is scheduled to debut in 2014. The goal of the line is to create innovative outdoor apparel for men. For example, a jacket will have an iPod plug-in with sleeves that can control the volume.
The Postal Service and Wahconah Group, Inc., the company designing the line, are hoping consumer loyalty will create a good customer base for the line.
As an apparel design and merchandising student, I am very interested to see how this will turn out. Novelty merchandise is a big market. However, the innovation the company is planning will produce expensive garments.
The Postal Service created a merchandise line in the '80's that sold very well. In fact, the only reason it was stopped was because lobbyists said the main job of the service was mailings. This was when the Postal Service was in high demand though. Now that technology reins communication systems, the likelihood of consumers wanting to pay a good amount of money for Postal Service merchandise is lower.
Ha, this is great! I thought it was satire at first until I kept reading. Going to have to check out their clothing line.
ReplyDeleteHaha! Nope it's very real. It should be interesting.
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