Tomorrow (May 14) the cost of first class snail mail goes up 2 cents to $.41. (The U.S. Postal Service cited rising transportation and employee health insurance costs as the reason for this increase, and changes in other services, such as also basing a price on shape, not just weight. Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.)

The USPS has also created and is marketing its “Forever Stamp”, a stamp good for mailing First-Class Mail letters now and anytime in the future—regardless of price changes.

I’m not surprised by the rate hike or this new idea. With more people paying bills online and writing emails instead of physical letters, the USPS has no doubt seen a drop in one of the biggest sectors of its business. It has a vested interest in keeping snail mail from extinction – UPS, FedX and other shipping companies have huge percentages of the package shipping industry now, but where do you go to mail a letter or a bill? Not to them. You go to the blue box on the corner (if you’re lucky – they’ve removed about half of them it seems.) The cost of gas is getting higher in the U.S., as we all are painfully aware, and transporting mail is without a doubt getting more expensive.

I think the Forever Stamp is a fabulous idea, and I’m going to buy some! My father likes getting letters vs. talking on the phone (yes, you read that right, and yes, that’s a big complicated topic for another article some day perhaps), and I love sending cards to people. I also have not made the switch to paying all bills online, as I still don’t completely trust it. Buying the Forever Stamps is a no-brainer decision to save money on a regular part of my budget.

Then, having made this wise monetary decision to save a few dollars over the years, I pondered what other industries might copy this idea for their own products, to ensure their security in the market place, or just as a gimmick of some sort. But it also made me wonder how that would work…

• The Forever Gallon of Gas (they’d probably make it $6 just to be safe, eh?)
• The Forever Shoes (would that mean you only get to buy the same damn pair over and over, or that the cost stays the same but you can still stay stylish?)
• The Forever Dinner Out (I’m not talking fast food here, that would be easy enough since it’s barely food anyway, I mean the expensive good stuff)
• The Forever Computer, Digital Camera, Cell Phone (here I’m just dreaming or hallucinating, whichever you like)
• The Forever Grocery Store Trip (they would probably deny one to my boyfriend, though, who is like a sparrow and eats his weight in food in a day practically)
• The Forever Doctor’s Visit (riiiiight)
• The Forever Automobile (yes, I know, they’re coming to take me away now)

What would Forever Item would you like to see?

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