That's interest Liesl, though I don't think MM has to go through a distribution center so it would probably just go directly to the destination instead of through the distribution center.  I know anything I send to central or upper MN doesn't go down through there first, it just goes straight to the destination. I always get my Quick Credit on the scan in St Paul when I drop stuff in the APC box, so it will stink if that happens.

Here (in Boulder Colorado) all media mail for Colorado and Wyoming is seperated out at my local post office, all other packages are grouped together.  I believe both groups are then sent to Denver for further processing, but the CO and Wyoming ones are clearly fast-tracked for local delivery.

Isn't there a distribuation center in St. Paul??  I am in Minnesota and don't really pay that close attention to it all...as long as the person gets the books I sent.

I was assuming that St Paul is the one she's talking about getting shut down.

I'm in northern MN and I think all of our stuff goes south to St Cloud to get sorted.  I think the local stuff gets sorted here but anything else is trucked out.

Oh, I hope ours doesn't start going through St Cloud, that black hole adds at least 2 days to my mail going anywhere in MN. 

Anyone else seeing more and more IA scans? I've noticed more going there instead of the cities and mail is definitely slowed down, takes 5-6 days for that first scan where the cities was the next day and usually delivered in 3-4 days.

I'll have to pay attention--I'm in the Mpls. 'burbs and from the scans I've gotten in the past, there is usually a scan in Minneapolis, and then sometimes one in St. Paul, too, before it heads for other locales, but not very often. A book I sent last Thursday wasn't scanned at all until it got to Anaheim, CA. I looked back at my transaction archive for some recently mailed books, and as recently as October 5, there were still scans from the Mpls center. When was this supposed to have happened?

I have one I mailed yesterday in a blue box, but as it was a holiday hasn't even been picked up yet, so will have to see what happens to that.

Cheryl

I don't know when it was supposed to, but I started getting a few in IA towards the end of Sept, but most still went through St Paul. The last St Paul scan I see is 10/3, then it goes to no intermediate scan or all IA. Maybe Minneapolis is still safe and its only the St Paul that is going away? The IA is consistantly SLOW :(

Well, that's weird! The one I dropped in the blue box yesterday morning in front of the hospital was actually scanned last evening in Mpls! So maybe they did pick up from the blue boxes (or at least this particular one) even though there was no mail delivery?

Cheryl

Just to update--I've sent a whole bunch of books in the past couple weeks, and about 95% of them are still being scanned either in Minneapolis or St. Paul...I have yet to have an Iowa scan unless the book is being mailed to Iowa, and then it's usually in whatever town it's going to.  The few that haven't been scanned here in the Twin Cities aren't scanned at all until they get to another large distribution center or on delivery.

Cheryl

Down here it is weird because our mail hits Mankato before heading ANYWHERE in the state. For instance, it takes two days to go to Owatonna, but one to the Cities (Mankato is a short stop to the MSP office, where it is then sorted and shipped down to Owatonna). If things are being sent HERE from there, it usually only takes a day (sorting has already been done). I will start checking our stamps, but I am thinking IA hasn't hit us yet..which makes no sense. Then again, this is the Postal System...when has it EVER made sense??? LOL

I live just outside Albert Lea and an outgoing book mailed on 13 October was next listed in DC as ENR Des Moines, IA three days later.  Ultimate destination was NC.  So....there may be a bit of truth there somewhere.  Typically mine would go to Mankato than onto MNPLS.  This one may have taken the same route, but DC scans indicate:

1. 10/13/2009 10:00 PM ET - Electronic Shipping Info Received - HOLLANDALE, MN
2. 10/16/2009 8:32 AM ET - Enroute - DES MOINES, IA
3. 10/20/2009 9:32 AM ET - Arrival at Unit - S..., NC
4. 10/20/2009 12:52 PM ET - Delivered - S..., NC

EDIT:  typo correction

I have found that lately most of my scans are going through DesMoines IA with only a few still being scanned in St Paul or Mpls.  Might depend on where in the state you live.  I live in Forest Lake just north of the Twin Cities and I have recently seen that the first class book packages seem to be scanned mostly in St Paul or Mpls and the MM ones in IA.

Must be related to where you live. Mine are still all going to Mpls for the first scan, occasionally still a St. Paul for the second scan, and then off to wherever--not Des Moines, though. I have only had one scanned in Des Moines, and that was one I happened to be home on vacation and handed the pkg to my mailman, and the primary scan on that one was in Des Moines for some reason. Weird. I usually drop in a blue box in front of my work, and those are the ones that have the Mpls scans.

Cheryl