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American Morning
Postal Outlet Store May Benefit from Travel Slow Down
Aired November 23, 2001 - 08:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The day after Thanksgiving kicks off the Christmas shopping season and retailers are trying to dig away from beneath the sagging economy this year. One strategy is offering shoppers early bird specials and some big discounts all day long.
And our Ed Lavandera is at the nation's super shopping center, the Mall of America this morning, to find out how things are going -- well, Ed, how's it look out there?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's starting to pick up here a little bit, Leon. We're at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, the largest mall in the country. One of the stores opened here at 5:00 a.m.
We're inside of a store called Postmark America and this is a U.S. Postal Service outlet. But it's more of a retail store. You know, it's a very unique type of store. You're not going to find this in many parts of the country at all. A lot of memorabilia, U.S. Postal Service memorabilia to buy here. And, of course, the main issue here is as a lot of people come shopping in this mall today, the hope is that they'll also make a stop in this store.
And joining us now to talk about that is Connie Kirama, who's the manager here of Postmark America.
Connie, what is the hope that a lot of these people coming by and shopping in the store will stop here?
CONNIE KIRAMA, U.S. POSTAL SERVICE: Well, that is our hope. We do advertising throughout the mall to promote that we are a post office here, to help give the shoppers that come to this mall a, like a one stop shopping experience.
They can shop and they come here, mail their gifts home. We have a variety of packaging products here. Most of the items that people buy are not in sturdy enough containers to mail. So here on the counter we have a selection of the sizes that are available and we can help assist customers in picking the correct style, shape and then offering them the correct mailing services.
LAVANDERA: And you're also hoping that people will choose the mail this year since traveling through the airports isn't as easy as it was before September 11. You're hoping that you guys will offer, also offer a less, I don't know what the best way of putting it is, but the easiest way of sending stuff.
KIRAMA: A very comfortable way to take care of the merchandise that they have bought. And we are hoping to help them, advise them on the proper packaging and mailing procedures here, and we have all of the holiday stamps available for them and then plus we have the recommendations that will help to ensure that their parcel, their intended gift gets to the destination timely and in a safe and good manner.
LAVANDERA: Postal workers have been on the front line here, unfortunately, since September 11 with the anthrax issues and it floating around the country. You guys are also a lot more aware of what's coming through through your offices here, right?
KIRAMA: We always are very responsive and responsible in looking at what people are mailing and asking them questions to make sure that what they want to mail is acceptable in the mail stream. The post office has very strict rules and regulations as far as mailing.
LAVANDERA: All right, Connie, thank you very much, and good luck to you today, because a lot of people are headed your way.
KIRAMA: Thank you.
LAVANDERA: More than 100,000 people expected to come through this mall today. So you can imagine the stress that a lot of these workers in this mall are under today -- Leon.
HARRIS: Yes, but as I'm sure it's a stress they wouldn't mind going through.
Ed Lavandera, thanks much. We'll check back with you later on and throughout the day, of course.
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