Black Friday may be the start of the holiday shopping season, but if you need to mail your gifts, you may want to get started on that now.
The United States Postal Service is out with its mailing deadlines and the first one is just around the corner — November 6th — for retail ground service. That’s just a week after Halloween.
The earlier deadline is due to changes the USPS is making to save money and be more competitive, however, it also slows things down a bit.
The fastest option is still Priority Mail Express, but it’s a day earlier this year at December 23rd.
The full schedule is as follows:
- Nov. 6 — APO/FPO/DPO (all ZIP Codes) USPS Retail Ground service
- Dec. 9 — APO/FPO/DPO (all ZIP Codes) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail
- Dec. 15 — USPS Retail Ground service
- Dec. 16 — APO/FPO/DPO USPS Priority Mail Express Military service
- Dec. 17 — First-Class Mail service (including greeting cards)
- Dec. 17 — First-class packages (up to 15.99 ounces)
- Dec. 18 — Priority Mail service
- Dec. 23 — Priority Mail Express* service
