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  • 2
    Sep
    2011
    7:28pm, EDT

    Ben Margot / AP

    US Postal Service mailboxes are seen awaiting disposal Thursday, Sept. 1, in San Jose, Calif. Because of steeply declining use, the U.S. Postal Service has removed more than 60 percent of the blue boxes, the chief culprit is the Internet. More people are paying bills, sending invitations and writing personal letters online. The volume of mail dropped into mailboxes has dropped 35 percent since 2006, said Sue Brennan, a U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman.

    Postal service retires mailboxes as use declines

    By Rich Shulman

    We seldom see as visual a symbol of the impact of the Internet as this yard full of retired mailboxes.

    Related:

    The postal service is running out of options

    Postal Service proposing cutting 120,000 jobs

    Postal Service mulls closing 3,700 post offices

    4 comments

    Can these mail boxes be purchased by the public????

    Show more
    Explore related topics: california, san-jose, us-news, us-postal-service, mailboxes

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Rich Shulman

is a multimedia editor at msnbc.com. Before that, he was a picture editor at Corbis and the Director of Photography at the Everett, Wa. Herald.

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