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Tuesday, July 6. 2010

How to run a business

I heard on the radio this morning that the US Postal Service has applied for another rate increase in postage stamps.


The reason is that business is down, mainly due to people paying bills online and people communicating via email.


Only in government can one contemplate raising prices because people don't want your product.

Posted by The Barrister in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 11:18 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

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Barrister, my friend ... "Only in government" can the agency raise prices because of their own inefficiency and get away with it.

Damm, but I love the free market when it's allowed to operate!

Marianne
#1 Marianne Matthews on 2010-07-06 11:25 (Reply)
Only in government do people throw more money at obvious failures. Remember the war on poverty? Obviously, if it wasn't working it was because enough money wasn't being spent.
#2 Ray on 2010-07-06 11:47 (Reply)
My favorite quote (and I do NOT know where I read it. Heinlein? Clarke? Asimov?) about how the law of supply and demand works and why prices keep going up:

"When supply is low and demand is high, charge what the market will bear. When demand is low and supply is high, raise prices to maintain profit margin."

Seems the USPS has been reading science fiction too.....
#3 JoeC on 2010-07-06 11:58 (Reply)
Really bizarre. There are some bills I still pay w/ a check becuase I've been too busy to set them up on-line. This will motivate me to do that. You're right -- any normal business would lower prices to try to lure customers back. The PO is raising prices to scare away their last customers.
#4 Park Slope Pubby on 2010-07-06 12:40 (Reply)
No, any normal business would improve operations and service, design new products, and try to do better than the competition and then charge more for it because people will pay more for something that they want and cannot get elsewhere.
#4.1 class factotum (Link) on 2010-07-06 18:10 (Reply)
Would be interesting to see an honest stab at a cost analysis for junk mail. I get about 20 pounds of this stuff per week, 97% of which goes directly in the trash.
#5 david foster (Link) on 2010-07-06 18:55 (Reply)
I throw the junk mail away at the post office. Most of it probably originates in the same town, and supposedly pays most of the USPS costs.

I find the USPS a pretty good deal. Sure, they can close half the offfices and you can drive two towns away to get to one. Or you can spend, what, $20 to FedEx.

They ought to set up something like PayPal. PostPal. I could brainstorm with you guys and we could probably fix the whole thing before the keg went dry.
#6 KBK on 2010-07-06 20:18 (Reply)

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