Service with a smile

I don't know if they do this in every post office, but at the Valley Plaza Station, North Hollywood, California 91606, if you pay with cash, the clerk will always remind you, "Don't forget, we also take credit and debit cards."

I guess it does make some sense to do this if someone's just bought 30 rolls of 1,000 stamps each, plus several of those overpriced phone cards, or something like that. However, I'm not sure if it makes sense to say this to someone who has just, as I did today, paid cash for 40 3-cent stamps (and paid with exact change, no less, including a Sacajawea dollar coin). And considering the amount of time it always takes for a credit or debit card transaction to go through there, combined with the usual length of the line, I think they should do it the other way around and instead remind you, "Don't forget, we also take cash."

But on the good side, the clerks at this post office are friendlier, more competent, and faster-moving than the clerks at the Chandler Station, North Hollywood, California 91601, which also features bulletproof glass separating customers and clerks, and a metered parking lot. Yes, the meters are a mere 5 cents per 12 minutes, nickels cheerfully accepted (insofar as an inanimate electromechanical device can be cheerful), but since someone in line is always trying to mail radioactive waste to Guatemala or something, it's impossible to get in and out of there in under 12 minutes.

You might think bulletproof glass would be problematic in a post office, since part of the normal service provided by post offices involves the transfer of objects in the shape of various rectangular solids. You would be correct. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to cut down on the length of the line, because people never learn.