By David A. Bryant – May 22, 2015
COPPERAS COVE, TX — The U.S. Postal Service held a ribbon-cutting for its first village post office to open in the city Thursday inside Candy Outfitters on Business U.S. Highway 190.

Of the nearly 800 VPOs in operation across the nation, the Cove location is the only one inside a candy store, said Christi Davidson, USPS VPO coordinator for the Rio Grande postal region.

“We can put them in any type of location, although most of them are in convenience stores. I have one in a pharmacy, and we even have one in a book store in Detroit,” Davidson said. “VPOs will sell first-class stamps, books of stamps or singles, and they will offer priority flat-rate domestic shipping. We don’t do international, but we do offer domestic ‘if it fits, it ships.’ It’s also a drop-off for click and ship prepaid packaging such as eBay, if they have a shipping label already on it.”

Mail will be picked up from the village post office at 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, which will give customers more flexibility in getting mail out instead of standing in line at the main post office, Davidson added.

Michael White, who owns Candy Outfitters with his wife, Jennifer, said he was excited to partner with USPS and provide the extra service, as it will benefit his customers as well as his business.

“The hours will be more flexible here, too, as it’s based on the store’s hours and not the post office’s hours,” White said. “So you’ll be able to get a box ready for shipment even when the post office isn’t open.”

White said since his business had already done so much work with USPS shipping their products, it made sense to partner with them.

Source: First village post office in Cove opens at candy store – The Killeen Daily Herald: News