What do you give postal carrier?

[nicolewi]

They aren't technically supposed to take money or gift cards. I usually do some kind of food gift, like cheese & sausage and/or chocolate. He could be a vegetarian for all I know, but I figure he could always use it for parties or re-gift, LOL. I don't know what else to give him. What do you give?

Also, what do you give newspaper carrier and garbage people (if applicable)?

[Mrs.flang]

I give a Dunkin gift card (there’s one right next to our post office so even if they don’t drink coffee I figure it’s convenient).

I’ve heard that rule, but we always get a thank you note so I figure they take it regardless.

[dochas]

I don't think they're "supposed" to take anything, so I don't think you have to do food. We do a quick chek gift card, because if nothing else they can use it for gas.

[krystee]

We don’t get a newspaper, but I don’t get anything for the other two. My gift list is 42 people long, and I will cry if I have to add more.

[minniemouse]

Nothing. I don’t even know what our mail carrier looks like, lol.
We don’t get a newspaper, and we don’t get our garbage collectors anything either. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[tarajane]

Starbucks gift card

[aspentosh]

$20, thank you card, and a homemade dessert.

Our mailman is constantly picking up stuff I mail, so I want to do something.

[sunflower17]

about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2012/pb22349/html/cover_025.htm


They are allowed to accept gifts worth $20 or less. I give a $20 gift card. We’ve had the same mail carrier since we moved here so it’s our 3rd holiday season.
ETA- Target card

[expectantsteelerfan]

I do $10 local grocery store/gas station/everything store gc for our garbage man, who leaves a card every year. I don't do recycling (they don't get out of the truck to take anything that didn't fit in the can because they have the automated arms that pick up the cans. Garbage does too, but they will still take stuff left outside the can too). I used to do candy (from our local popular candy store) for the mail man, but that was when we had a regular one. The past few years the person has changed every few months and I have no idea who it is now. We don't get a paper.

[Susie]

Dec 21, 2019 14:53:55 GMT -5 krystee said:

We don’t get a newspaper, but I don’t get anything for the other two. My gift list is 42 people long, and I will cry if I have to add more.

I'm pretty much here.  

By the time I get through our family, friends, teachers, neighbors, adopt-a-family, housekeeper, and everyone else, I'm out of mental and budgetary bandwidth to take on gifts for UPS, FedEx, USPS, trash collector, and others I haven't even thought of yet.

I salute all of you who do better!

[tripleshot]

Nothing

[imojoebunny]

I give him $20 cash in October, after our neighborhood has a big festival, during which he has to deliver mail, while being blocked by in excess of 20,000 people roaming the streets. Same with the UPS guy. I don't really see him at Christmas, since he has a helper and extra trucks service our area. I give him something in January, usually a small gift card to the convenience store in our neighborhood.

[pandorica]

Nothing. I don't even know if it's the same person, and honestly our mail person is terrible.

[icedcoffee]

Nothing. Our mail carrier trashed anything left in our mailbox without a stamp on it (ex: community newsletter or a friends who leaves something there) so I have no way of giving him a gift even if I wanted to. It would be breaking the law, after all.

[lilac05]

Nothing. We frequently have different people (driving route).

I occasionally put out a cold drink in the summer or snacks for delivery people, but nothing at Christmas.

[expectantsteelerfan]

Dec 21, 2019 21:52:08 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Nothing. Our mail carrier trashed anything left in our mailbox without a stamp on it (ex: community newsletter or a friends who leaves something there) so I have no way of giving him a gift even if I wanted to. It would be breaking the law, after all.

Unrelated, but I once had a guy who was going to look at something outside our house that I wanted fixed, and I wasn't going to be home when he looked at it.  I asked him to leave the quote in the mailbox, and he was like, that is against the law, I can't do that.  He insisted on mailing it instead.  I picked someone else who left me a quote the same day.

[rocklake]

Our postal carrier left us a holiday card in an unused envelope with a stamp on it. The card was signed with his name and a PO Box--to which I assume he was heavily suggesting we use the envelope to mail him some type of a gift. I was really annoyed about it all and didn't send anything.

[pooh8402]

Nothing. We don't have the same person from day to day. In fact, I think they rotate between like 3 people.

[JayhawkGirl]

Dec 22, 2019 13:34:00 GMT -5 expectantsteelerfan said:

Dec 21, 2019 21:52:08 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Nothing. Our mail carrier trashed anything left in our mailbox without a stamp on it (ex: community newsletter or a friends who leaves something there) so I have no way of giving him a gift even if I wanted to. It would be breaking the law, after all.

Unrelated, but I once had a guy who was going to look at something outside our house that I wanted fixed, and I wasn't going to be home when he looked at it.  I asked him to leave the quote in the mailbox, and he was like, that is against the law, I can't do that.  He insisted on mailing it instead.  I picked someone else who left me a quote the same day.

He wasn’t wrong. Our current carrier looks the other way when we put things in neighbors’ boxes, but the lady before pulled out the flier for the neighborhood fall fest from each box and scolded a resident she spotted (who had nothing to do with it).

[minzy]

I gave our mail carrier $20 and some chocolate covered marshmallows.

For trash and recycling, I taped a card with cash on the cans this week, $30 for each crew. I included some fives because I never know how many people are covering the route, usually two or three and that amount would work well either way. Then I saw four recycling guys, oh well.

[pooh8402]

It's illegal to put stuff in mailboxes? Our family does it all the time to leave things for each other. A screwdriver, small tools. I often leave cards that I don't want to use a stamp for, especially since BIL/SIL live 2 doors down.

[nsl]

Given the number of passive-aggressive notes our mail carrier has left this year about our box being blocked (by a neighbor’s guest’s car, which we can’t fix) she’s getting nothing.

[notsopicky]

I'm giving him (today!) some food GCs for lunches out. He is so friendly to everyone on our whole street, greets my son when he sees him walking home from the bus stop, delivers our eleventy-billion packages to our door with a smile every time, waves at me in the car, etc. Our carriers were so bad at my old place, so I super appreciate him.

[icedcoffee]

Dec 22, 2019 17:16:49 GMT -5 pooh8402 said:

It's illegal to put stuff in mailboxes? Our family does it all the time to leave things for each other. A screwdriver, small tools. I often leave cards that I don't want to use a stamp for, especially since BIL/SIL live 2 doors down.

Yep.  Our mail carrier would take all of this and throw it in the trash.  

[starburst604]

My H’s company always gives each employee (there are like 1,000) a gift card for $25 to Amazon or Walmart or the like and every year he gives it to our mail carrier. We got a thank you note from him the other day for an Amazon card so I guess that’s what it was this year!

[noodleoo]

Dec 23, 2019 7:14:41 GMT -5 notsopicky said:

I'm giving him (today!) some food GCs for lunches out. He is so friendly to everyone on our whole street, greets my son when he sees him walking home from the bus stop, delivers our eleventy-billion packages to our door with a smile every time, waves at me in the car, etc. Our carriers were so bad at my old place, so I super appreciate him.

Our mail carrier is awesome too. He’s super nice and we’ve become friends with him.  My H buys and ships a lot of packages so we talk to him a lot. He’s so nice to our kids and he waves every time he drives by our house. Their job has gotten so much harder now with package delivery, especially amazon. The poor guy has been working 13-14 hour shifts lately and he’s exhausted. We give him a $20 GC, but I kind of think we should do more. IT’s a really hard job, especially this time of year and I feel for him. 

[Alps79]

Some time in federal prison.

I discovered ours was stealing from us and other people in our neighborhood. I reported it, and while it's taking some time, she'll be in prison in 2020. I actually get to be at her sentencing.

So we obv have someone new and I have not met them; I won't be giving them anything.