Two hours of weekday counter service were eliminated.

Here’s a development that seems to be about as popular as junk mail.

Earlier this month, the main Red Bank post office on Broad Street shaved two hours from its weekday-morning window service. Instead of opening at 8a, it now starts conducting business at 10.

The window still closes at 7p on weekdays, and is open from 8a to 2p on Saturdays.

Darleen Reid-De Meo, a postal service spokeswoman, tells redbankgreen the change is part of a general trend in which offices are modifying their hours to accommodate the lifestyles of consumers. It also reflects the availability of stamps and other materials from lobby machines and other sources, she says.

redbankgreen asked one of the clerks if customers are complaining. “Oh, yeah,” said the clerk. “Lots.”

The newish local postmaster, whose name we have been unable to learn, “would like to get it least moved to 9,” the clerk said, of the opening time. But officials at the postal service “don’t care. They’ll tell you to go buy a stamp at Foodtown.”

Indeed, the notice shown above (click to enlarge) that’s posted near the front door touts the availability of stamps at supermarkets, ATM machines, online and by phone.

Vin Faiella, owner of Red Bank Surplus on Wallace Street, doesn’t like the change.

“It’s stupid,” he says.

“They’re still in there at 7,” he says of the postal workers’ start time. “But now, instead of going to the post office before I open, I have to shut my store down to go to the post office.

“People have to work. It’s ridiculous,” he says.

In May, the Fair Haven post office, which is a substation of the Red Bank facility, started closing its counter at 4p instead of 5. The Westboro branch also altered its hours in May, says Reid-De Meo.

The U.S. Postal Service website gives the Westboro branch hours as 8:30a to 5p weekdays.

Email this story