Trader Joe's and the Point Roberts Post Office

I was looking at some internet nothingness the other day and what it in particular focused on were comments on the Bellingham Trader Joe's site.  I like Trader Joe's, shopped there (but in Los Angeles) for decades.  It's always crowded.  That seems to be their business model: small stores, small parking lots, lots of items, lots of customers.  It's rarely a solitary or contemplative shopping experience.  But, I must admit that Bellingham's Trader Joe's has taken that business model to something of an extreme.

But I go there anyway: good prices, good quality.  And then yesterday, I found myself reading these customer comments.  But what was remarkable was the very high frequency of complaint about how many of the shoppers, how many of the parking lot users, were Canadians.  I'm pretty impressed to think that vast numbers of Canadians drive down to Bellingham just to shop at Trader Joe's.  But that's what the comments would lead you to think.

And then there was the one commenter who suggested that the very least Trader Joe's management could do was have special hours for Americans Only.  Thus causing me to send out this congratulation to Point Roberts' residents: Although I have heard people here say that there should be special times or lines for large-volume commercial mailers at the post office (our own version of the Trader Joe's problem), I have NEVER heard anyone say that there should be special hours just for those of us who live here.  What we mostly hear is that the post office management should provide more staff to handle the customers.  And for that, the USPO could take some lessons from Bellingham's Trader Joe's.  In that store, there are lots of check stands and they're pretty much all open all the time and the cheerful checkers get you through the line very quickly!