The US Postal Service is considering the closure of fewer than 170 post offices as part of its branch-consolidation initiative.
The December 14 announcement means that the Postal Service, which announced a $3.8 billion net loss for its 2009 fiscal year, cut more than 70 branches from its list of offices awaiting possible closure since last month.
The agency is targeting branches in urban and suburban areas “to determine where consolidations might be feasible without compromising customer access to postal services,” according to a statement from the agency.
A Postal Service statement did not specify the exact number of branches that the agency is still considering closing. A USPS representative could not be immediately reached for comment.
Last month, the USPS announced it had narrowed the list of possible consolidations to 241. The Postal Service began the process with a list of more than 3,100 branches.
