Associated Mail & Parcel Centers Blog

Customer Lady Frugal: You charge 11 cents more for stamps than the post office! Your mailing
and shipping rates are almost double those at the post office – that’s outrageous – maybe even illegal.
This is outrageous!!

Store Owner: Ma’am, I don’t sell stamps here. I don’t sell shipping, boxes, bubblewrap, copies, peanuts,
or faxes. Those are not my products or services. I sell the most precious and limited commodity
on Earth. I sell time. I take the most precious commodity that I have been allotted, and I willingly
sell it to you.

We are all given a certain amount of time on this planet and it is very limited. Nobody I know has
told me that they have too much time – there are too many hours in the day. They are all way too
harried to get everything done without saving any time for themselves, their family and friends. We
are all just players who strut and fret our hour upon this stage and then are heard no more.
In the broad scheme of things it is just a cosmological second – a fleeting hour that we live here. The
time we are on the Earth is as the credit card ads would say: priceless. And you should be using it for
yourself, doing the things you love, and I am here to see to it that you do and I charge you 11 cents
for it.

I give you that time back.

Those 11 cents will save you the time to drive to the PO, avoid the demolition
race parking lot, to walk in and stand in a line, then get back out of the parking lot and the time to
drive home. What does that add up to? Nothing significant? Let me show you.

I heard it said that every day you spend fishing is added on to the end of your life. If that’s the case,
what does a few more minutes with your kids, a longer kiss from your husband, reading a few more
pages in that book you put down, watching a movie, taking a walk in the park, spending a few more
minutes over a cup of coffee, spoiling your grandkids, watching the river flow, playing a few holes at
the golf course, watching your favorite TV show, or listening to a favorite song mean to you? Aren’t
these the minutes that are added to the end of your life?

I sell you the opportunity to do some of those things you used to love to do so much, but have forgotten
how valuable they are. I sell you the time to be happy, the time to reflect, the time to think, the
time to have fun, the time to enjoy the good stuff. All for 11 cents.

Add up the time you save by coming here over a lifetime: ten minutes a week adds up to over six
weeks of eight hour days over the span of 40 years. That’s a better return than the fishing investment.
Simply said, the few minutes I give you a week adds up to 20,800 minutes over about 1/2 a
lifetime.

You can use those minutes however you please – I suggest you use them fishing down by the river
with your grandkids.

Customer Lady Frugal after staring in the store owner’s eyes silently for a few seconds: A book of
stamps, please. And I’ll see you next week, thank you.