Diamond Lake Post Office Spared Closure

Despite being slated for potential closure in 2009, Windom's Diamond Lake Post Office is not in immediate danger of closure, the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday morning.

The news came as the USPS announced major downsizing moves that aimed to cut costs in the face of shifting customer behavior and stiff competition from FedEx, UPS, and other shipping services. Around 90 post offices in Minnesota alone are facing the ax. The Postal Service operates about 32,000 post offices nationwide.

“Today, more than 35 percent of the Postal Service’s retail revenue comes from expanded access locations such as grocery stores, drug stores, office supply stores, retail chains, self-service kiosks, ATMs and usps.com, open 24/7,” said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe in a news release. “Our customer’s habits have made it clear that they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business.”

The USPS says it will continue to offer some services for areas that loose their bricks-and-mortar post office at "Village Post Offices." These would be operated by a local business like a pharmacy or grocery store, and would offer services such as stamps and flat-rate packaging.