“Amazon markets itself as USPS’s savior, but the real arrangement is exploitative.”
Amazon Is Bleeding the Post Office Dry
By Rachel Herring
The US Postal Service promises to deliver mail to rural areas where private carriers won’t extend service because it isn’t profitable. Now Amazon is taking advantage of that publicly built infrastructure for its own gain — at rural mail carriers’ expense.
Amazon’s recent statement about its relationship with the USPS presents a carefully constructed narrative. Since 2013, USPS has delivered Amazon packages through a program colloquially known as “Amazon Sundays.” The contract was up for renegotiation this year, and the stakes were high. Amazon brings in $6 billion in annual revenue to the federal agency, which is on the brink of bankruptcy. The 2026 negotiated contract resulted in the USPS delivering 80 percent of Amazon packages it had previously handled, an outcome USPS had no real power to refuse. Amazon, for its part, calls this a “long-standing partnership.” The relationship is not as mutual as Amazon suggests.
Read more at: https://jacobin.com/2026/05/usps-amazon-rural-mail-privatization