Mailing it in

Carrying packages full of toy trucks and stuffed animals, Kevin Pugh waded through the unusually long lines and cramped spaces at the post office in Cape Girardeau Tuesday morning -- and he did it gladly.

How else was he going to send his little piece of Christmas to New Mexico?

"I wanted to get these presents to my grandkids on time," Pugh said after waiting a meager 10 minutes. "It was either the post office or FedEx or UPS. I think this costs a little less."

Long lines could be found at post offices across the country, as well as at shippers FedEx and UPS, all which are in the midst of their busiest week of the year.

At the Cape Girardeau Post Office on Christine Street on Monday morning, there were more than 20 people who were waiting to make sure their gifts found their way under the tree by Christmas. Over the lunch hour, the line -- and waiting time -- swelled.

Still, some patrons refused to bah-humbug.

"It wasn't too bad; I can't complain," said Mary Gentry of Cape Girardeau, who was sending presents to nieces and nephews in Indianapolis.

Monday was expected to be the U.S. Postal Service's busiest day, when total mail volume was expected to rise to 900 million pieces of mail and packages, compared to an average of 670 million per day. The Postal Service delivers about 20 billion packages, cards and letters between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"It's pretty damn crazy," said Cape Girardeau postmaster Mike Keefe. "It's even worse than most years."

Keefe said that since Christmas falls on a Sunday, people perhaps are assuming they have the whole week to mail their cards and packages. But he said people should mail their packages today if they want them to reach their destination by Saturday.

They could even probably get a package delivered on time Wednesday if it's going somewhere locally -- which the post office considers about a 500 mile radius.

"On Wednesday, if they're sending something to Chicago or Memphis, it should be there Friday or Saturday," Keefe said. "But if they want to send something to Los Angeles or New York, that could be tough."

The post office on Christine will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but the post office substation at Bi-State Oil convenience store at 920 N. Kingshighway will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Keefe said.

There are express options that are offered by the major delivery companies. FedEx and UPS have set a cutoff date of Thursday for gifts to arrive by Friday, and the postal service offers express mail as late as Friday for arrival on Saturday. Of course these services come at a cost.

At the UPS Store in Cape Girardeau, associate Julie Muhlfeld said they saw a steady stream of customers all day Monday. UPS expects its busiest day to be today.

UPS spokesman Steve Holmes said from Atlanta that the company expects 20 million packages today, up from a typical day of 14.1 million. That equates to 230 packages a second, he said.

And a growing part of those packages, he said, come from e-commerce. According to the research firm eMarketer, online retail sales are expected to grow 22 percent in the final three months of 2005, to roughly $26 billion.

Several retailers now contract with UPS and FedEx. Typically, in years past, so-called "e-tailers," such as eBay, would take orders over the Internet and the business would re-key the information into a shipping system. Now, many of them have integrated a system that automatically sends the information to shippers.

The technology allows e-tailers to process the information 10 times faster, Holmes said.

FedEx plans to handle 8.5 million packages today, about 400,000 more than last year's busiest day.

"Economic growth continues on a healthy and sustainable pace with recent indicators that the holiday season will be solid," said FedEx economist Gene Huang. "Improving trends in merchandise sales, business orders, the services sector and employment in the U.S. remain in place, and this bodes well for holiday sales."

And the more sales there are, the more shipping that will need to be done.

"With consumers spending more time online, e-commerce will likely drive more holiday activity this season than in the past," Huang said.

Still, with shippers and the postal service scampering so that Santa isn't embarrassed, postmaster Keefe said that this isn't the worst time of the year for postal employees.

"It's hectic, but we're happy," he said. "It's after Christmas when we feel bad. That's when we bring the bills and tax forms."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137