PITTSFIELD â The wreath went into a box. The box went into the mail. And then, it seems, into limbo.
Township Four Floristry & Home, a downtown Pittsfield gift store, paid about $25 to select âPriorityâ shipping for the wreath it sent Nov. 27 to a customer in Rhode Island. On Saturday, 15 days later, co-owner Jed Thompson checked the U.S. Postal Serviceâs tracking system and found that the box containing that token of holiday warmth was cooling its heels somewhere in southern Connecticut, one of many packages caught in a coronavirus pandemic-driven delivery snarl affecting the whole U.S.
On the U.S. Postal Service website, a message now reads: âALERT: USPS IS EXPERIENCING UNPRECEDENTED PACKAGE INCREASES AND LIMITED EMPLOYEE AVAILABILITY DUE TO THE IMPACTS OF COVID-19.â