Why is it that the lines at the Oakhurst Post Office in Monmouth County are always jam packed?! I was over at the post office about two days before Christmas (which means that everyone already had their holiday packages sent) and the line was at least 8 people deep in the middle of the day. First of all, why weren’t these people at work?! I wasn’t at work because I took a personal day – what’s their excuse?

Second, why is it that this particular post office is always jam packed with people? I know that the people working there are absolutely amazing (they really are the best postal employees that I’ve ever encountered – kind, courteous, knowledgeable, etc), but I just can’t understand why this post office is always filled up with customers. There aren’t a great abundance of post office boxes and the location of the building is slightly off of a main highway, so I don’t know if that has any impact on the traffic. But I do know that when I go to this particular post office, I usually have to wait about 10 minutes in line before I get to the teller.

Which brings up another point – why isn’t there an express lane at this post office? With the amount of traffic that comes through this place, you’d expect that they would put in a “fast lane” for people who are sending one envelope or who are just buying stamps. Instead, I often get caught behind people with dozens (no exaggeration) of boxes from their personal eBay businesses. I guess Ocean Township in Monmouth County is a hotbed of activity for eBay businesses or something. Weird.

Anyway, I went into this post office a few days before Christmas to send one package to a charity that I support on the West Coast and it took me about 20 minutes to send out a single package (which I had pre-packed before I arrived at the building). It was absolutely amazing and definitely an unnecessary complication for someone trying to complete a bunch of errands before heading away for the Christmas holiday.