[QUOTE=Jughead;925269]Maybe some of you FedEx guys or frequent shippers can help me out here.
The package weighed 0.7 lbs. The price came to 13.80, after the 75% discount. So using my best Auburn math, this comes out to $55.20 for this normally? Really? For a 0.7 lb envelope? Maybe I'm living in the past, but this price seems outrageous to me.
I appreciate the discount, but paid $5.07 instead at the post office for priority mail, which gets there a day later than FedEx would have./QUOTE]
Jughead, that priority mail you shipped via USPS was most likely carried on FedEx, as the Post Office doesn't own any aircraft. Also, do you realize that it costs .44 cents for a first class stamp and they subsidize the money losing package delivery with their monopoly on mail? Furthermore, contrary to minimum4's comments, besides FedEx and the USPS you also have a choice of using UPS.
Regarding the "cheapness" of the Post Office:
"USPS is trying to curb steep losses. It posted a $3.8 billion loss in its 2009 fiscal year, the latest in a multiyear string of whopping losses.
The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that it will incur about $238 billion in losses in the next 10 years if Congress doesn't permit it to revamp its outdated business model."
CNNMoney.com March 2, 2010. Reporter, Annalyn Censky