Amazon promises convenience for customers, but it's crushing some rural mail carriers

Last month — as Fox 13 reported — residents in San Juan County began complaining that Amazon packages were causing a major backup at post offices and delaying regular mail delivery.

People reported going days without receiving some bills, letters, and packages.

And they weren’t alone — around the same time in November, at a post office in rural Minnesota, the number of Amazon deliveries ramped up, causing chaos for local mail carriers.

"From talking to postal workers in Bemidji [Minnesota], it sounds like they had been told for a few years that Amazon was coming that someday they would get this Amazon volume, but they were never told when," says Caroline O'Donovan, a reporter for The Washington Post.

"And then all of a sudden, it sounds like around November first of this year, it did come. And overnight, they had thousands and thousands more Amazon packages dropped off at their loading dock at five o'clock in the morning," O'Donovan said.

Soundside host Libby Denkmann caught up with O'Donovan to hear more about what led to this onslaught of Amazon packages at rural post offices across the country, and what it means for carriers and customers.

Listen to the full interview with Caroline O'Donovan by clicking the play button at the top of the story.