Small-town post office and town hall in Lockhart, Alabama

A post office is a facility (in most countries, a government one) where the public can purchase postage stamps for mailing correspondence or merchandise, and also drop off or pick up packages or other special-delivery items.

Post offices also rent post-office boxes to people and businesses who prefer not to have mail delivered to their home or office.

In many countries, post offices include other functions, such as a place to pick up various government forms, to apply for passports & driving licences to send money to others, etc. In some countries, the post office functions as a financial bank and/or a central place to use public telephones.

The back rooms of a post office are where mail is processed for final delivery. Mail may also be processed in other post offices that are not open to the general public.

Some countries have a Chief Post Office to administer post offices throughout the country, or a CPO in various large cities to administer the post offices in those cities or their districts.

the main post office in Oxford, England

Although American citizens usually refer to its facilities as post offices, the United States Postal Service has a tradition of formally naming them "stations".

See also

General postal concepts

• Fleet Post Office
• mail
• Post Office box
• postal code, ZIP Code
• "going postal"

Examples of operators of post offices from around the world

• An Post
• Japan Post
• UK Post Office Ltd
• United States Postal Service
• Canada Post
• Universal Postal Union