The Postal Service's 'Get Well' Plan. Greeting cards!

Columnist Ed O'Keefe writes in the Washington Post, "Next time you visit the post office for stamps, you might also be able to buy (and send) your brother his belated birthday card."

Ed reports, "The U.S. Postal Service has started selling Hallmark greeting cards at some post offices, a one-year experiment that may lead the nation's 34,000 postal outlets to eventually sell other goods and services, including banking, insurance and cellphones."

About 1,500 postal branches started selling birthday and "get well soon" cards two weeks ago. District residents can buy cards only at the Postal Service's flagship location at L'Enfant Plaza, and another 29 spots in Maryland and Virginia also have them according to the report.

Unlike the mail, greeting cards remain a popular and profitable line of business, with 7 billion sold annually for more than $7.5 billion in sales, according to the Greeting Card Association. People receive more than 20 greeting cards each year, one-third of them for birthdays.

Shown above, A customer checks the greeting card options at the U.S. Postal Service's flagship post office at its L'Enfant Plaza headquarters in Washington. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service).

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