Editorial: End of an era

Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006 | 8:05 a.m.

Post office stamp vending machines are facing the same fate as telephones with rotary dials and eight-track tape players.

According to a story by the Associated Press, an internal U.S. Postal Service memo outlines plans to eliminate the service's 23,000 stamp vending machines by 2010. The machines, many of which are nearly 20 years old, are breaking down with increasing frequency. Replacement parts are hard to find, making repairs too costly.

It also has become expensive to upgrade them so they will accept newer paper currency that has been redesigned with the Treasury Department's anti-counterfeit characteristics.

Besides, Postal Service officials told AP, people already can purchase stamps at other, more convenient locations, such as grocery stores, convenience stores, automated teller machines and through the mail.

As with the thinning of any herd, stamp machines that are broken or doing sickly amounts of business will be the first to go. Machines that work well and are doing some business will replace broken machines or be moved to busier areas.

But there will be fewer of them, and all eventually will be eliminated. And that's a pity - if only because the stamp machines are among the few vending contraptions that sometimes give change in those nifty Sacagawea dollar coins.