Saratoga News

Saratoga post office will increase Saturday hours

By Sarah Lombardo

Soon, Saratoga residents will be able to sleep in on Saturdays and still get to the post office before it closes.

Acting Saratoga Postmaster Carolyn Black announced July 21 that Saratoga's main post office will begin staying open longer on Saturdays. The office's new hours will be from 9:15 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"Customers have told us that being open longer on Saturdays would be helpful," Black said. "Also, many people returning from vacation appreciate being able to pick up their vacation mail on the weekend."

Black said the nearby Los Gatos post office is also expected to begin staying open longer in September.

But longer hours are not the only thing expected to change in the coming months. According to Black, the post office will also introduce state-of-the-art retail terminals, which will make transactions easier for window clerks by integrating post-office-box management, money-order printing and verification and debit and credit card handling. The terminals will also provide postal information to the clerks--no more thumbing through manuals.

Letter carriers will also begin using scanning equipment on a test basis to confirm the delivery of priority mail from selected mailers, and the post office expects to begin selling Liberty cash cards for the first time in September.

Black said Saratoga residents will also begin receiving order forms for stamps within the next few weeks. With the forms, customers can purchase stamps through the mail. "All a customer needs to do is fill out the form, select which stamps are needed, enclose a check and mail the postage-paid mailer or hand it to a letter carrier," Black said.

The stamps, Black said, will arrive the next day--along with another order form.

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