The U.S. Postal Service announced that first class mail will no longer be delivered on  Saturdays, starting Aug. 10, 2013.

According to the United States Postal Service website, this change is a result of necessary federal budget cuts, and delivering first class mail five days a week instead of six will save the Postal Service approximately $2 billion annually.  Since 2006, the Postal Service has reduced its annual cost by $15 billion and has reduced its staff by 193,000 people.

Jane Ware, Mail and Shipping Associate Advanced at University of Wisconsin-Platteville, said the only hindrance this may cause the university is the increase in letters the university mail staff will have to sort through after a holiday weekend.

“Although there will be no home delivery on Saturdays, the lobby (of the Platteville Post Office) will still be open from 9 a.m. to noon,” Platteville Postmaster Johnny O’Shea said.

The Platteville Post Office has already seen decreases in staff in the past year due to automated processing equipment and a reduction in mail volume.

“At the beginning of the year, there were 20 full-time empoyees; now, there are 17,” O’Shea said.  “It’s possible that after Aug. 5 some temporary positions could be eliminated.”

According to O’Shea, the decision to eliminate Saturday delivery resulted from market research conducted by the Postal Service, which indicated seven out of 10 Americans supported the switch to five-day delivery.

Local business owner Heidi Dyas-McBeth, co-owner of the Driftless Market, said she was not concerned about the lack of Saturday mail deliveries. Driftless Market relies on the Postal Service mainly for package delivery.

“We appreciate the Postal Service but don’t foresee a significant impact on Driftless Market regarding no Saturday mail,” Dyas-McBeth said.

Packages and express mail will still be delivered, P.O. boxes will still receive mail six-days a week and post offices will still be open on Saturdays after Aug. 5.