Allan Appel Photo
A vestigial rite has gone the way of the soda fountain and the neighborhood hardware store in East Rock: Mailing a letter from the cozy corner pharmacy.
A month after its owner passed away, the historic Hall Benedict Pharmacy at 767 Orange St. has been forced to close its small post office. Now the business, which has been a community hub of East Rock since 1870, may itself have to fold.
The pharmacy’s future rests on the whether the little post office located in the store’s rear, complete with scales, meters, boxes, and all sizes of envelopes, in addition, of course, to stamps, will continue to function.
The man the post office was licensed to, pharmacy owner Jack Appelbaum, died on Nov. 3. He and his wife Annette owned and operated the pharmacy for the past 11 years.
Jessica Brown, who was clerking in the store Tuesday afternoon, said that Annette Appelbaum is seeking to continue the service, but federal officials may not permit her to.
The contract has gone out to public bidding, said New England regional postal service spokeswoman Maureen Marion.
“In this instance, our contractor holder passed away,” Marion said. “When he passed, the contract ended. It ends with him.” The way the contract was written, Jack Appelbaum was the “sole party,” she said.
Marion said Annette Appelbaum can compete in the bidding, but she has no advantage or leg up.
A call to Annette Appelbaum on the status of her application was not returned.
According to a nine-year employee at the pharmacy, Chris Graham (pictured), the little post office, known officially as a “contractual postal unit” or CPU, does it all, or almost: “We do everything a main post office can do except money orders.”
That is, they used to do it all.
Since Jack Appelbaum’s death the store has been reduced to selling only stamps.
Brown described the closure as “a huge blow to business.”
“A lot of our frequent customers are especially Yale students who ship internationally for the holidays,” Graham said.
Right on cue, Rona Richter came into the store. A Swiss woman, she asked Graham how much mailing a letter would cost. It would cost 61 cents. Richter wasn’t ready to mail it, however, and so she did not buy stamps.
That’s all Graham could have sold her at this time, as weighing parcels and selling postage for packages is forbidden, pending the outcome of the process to determine to whom the license will pass.
Richter did go across the aisle and purchase a 500-sheet package of printer paper.
People who enter the store in search of stamps or to mail parcels frequently purchase other items, Graham said.
When told of the potential demise of the postal outpost, Richter expressed dismay. “I like the convenience,” she said. “I love it.”
Richter (pictured) used to come in at least once a week for postal services, especially to mail parcels to Switzerland, she said. “I send a lot.”
If the neighborhood post office closes, she said with a shrug, she’d have to drive to Hamden.
During a visit to the neighborhood landmark on Tuesday, four people approached Chris Graham for postal services or rolled up in car or on foot to deposit mail in the box right outside the entrance to the store.
“Seventy percent of customers want the P.O. The whole neighborhood wants it,” Graham said.
According to Marion, the postal service awards the contract based on what’s best for the federal post office system and the bidding party. The post office pays a percentage of the sales to the contractor.
There are 5,600 CPUs nationally, with units in hardware or greet-card outlets as well as gas stations.
The deadline to submit a bid is Jan. 14. The bids will be opened at the postal service headquarters in Denver. Then postal officials will visit the top three or four candidates.
CPUs have had success throughout Connecticut in an era when the federal post office cannot afford to put shovels in the ground and build buildings of their own, Marion said.
Is it possible the Hill Benedict operation will end up miles away?
“Its premature to say,” Marion said.
Contact Rosa DeLauro and ask her to keep the PO here!