By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

According to local residents and business owners, the United States Postal Service’s recent announcement to stop delivering first-class mail on Saturdays will not affect their businesses or lives in a direct way.

“I personally think it is a step in the right direction for the USPS. America needs the post office,” Andrew Brown of Columbiana’s Brown Lumber wrote in an email. “A lot of individuals and companies depend on their services heavily, even with all the electronic features of today, not to mention all of the jobs they provide.”

U.S. Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe, in an online video posted Feb. 6, said the USPS doesn’t take any tax dollars, and has cut $2 billion in annual costs.

Based on “a great deal of customer input,” the USPS decided to continue to deliver packages six days a week, but will reduce mail delivery to five days beginning the week of Aug. 5, Donahoe said.

Montevallo resident Herschel Hale said the USPS’ decision will not affect him personally.

“I think that the decision they’ve made on no delivery on Saturday is not going to hurt me,” Hale said. “It’ll save a large amount of money. I don’t know any time in my life it would have affected me. If it had, I would have rented a post office box. I don’t see where it’ll hurt us.”

Gary Huddleston, owner of Hudd’s Food Center in Wilsonville, said the changes won’t affect his business either.

“I don’t foresee a problem with me,” Huddleston said. “Generally, 99 percent of (my Saturday mail) is junk mail or bills. I don’t receive payments like some businesses, so it really won’t affect me.”

Brown said the USPS made a “small, but necessary step in the right direction.”

“Private businesses have been making these decisions for the past several years, and adjustments have been necessary for a long time,” Brown said. “We are open on Saturdays – always have been, always will be. That is just the world of retail. Sure, we go get our mail on Saturday, but in the grand scheme of things, having a few more things to open on Monday will not be a detriment to many businesses. Inconvenient to an extent, but not a detriment.”