Business & Tech

Goin' Postal Delivers Controversy in First Week of Business

The owner of a new Woodward Avenue shipping store addresses negative comments regarding franchise name.

When Suzanne Weinberg of Royal Oak decided to open a Goin' Postal shipping and postal store franchise, she did so to be part of the community.

"I want to help people and make a living for my family," Weinberg said. "I want to be a role model to my kids."

The last thing Weinberg wanted to do was to hurt anyone's feelings when she opened her store's doors this week at 30270 Woodward Ave., but just days into the new business venture she finds herself being called insensitive because of store's name.

[Read: Goin' Postal Opens Royal Oak Location]

"Unbelievably insensitive," commented Suzanne Jones on the name Goin' Postal. "Hope they didn't sign a long term lease. Can't imagine that business succeeding in this town."

"Disgusting and in very poor taste. Even though it is a national company, the name is rude. . . and putting a location in Royal Oak is just a big rude slap in the face," said Christy Dykins Howard.

In the 1990s, Royal Oak became synonymous with the term "going postal" when on Nov. 14, 1991 employees heard screams coming from the workroom floor of the Royal Oak Post Office at 200 W. Second St. 

That day, 31-year-old Thomas McIlvane of Oak Park went on a rampage in the post office after finding out he had lost an arbitration hearing. He took the lives of four co-workers and wounded four more before killing himself and shaking up the community.

The Royal Oak shootings followed the Oct. 10, 1991 Ridgewood, NJ post office shootings and there were seven other tragic events at post offices across the country before that. By the end of the 1990s there would be eight more postal shootings in the U.S. and the term "going postal" became synonymous workplace rage.

"I believe in supporting local small businesses, but (Weinberg) should have had some sensitivity when she bought a franchise with such a crazy name," said Royal Oak letter carrier John Dick. 

Dick's wife, Jackie Dick, is a retired letter carrier who worked with the Royal Oak postal workers slain 22 years ago.

"The people I worked with are fine, dedicated, compassionate people. They do not deserve this hideous moniker, nor do they need to be reminded of this tragedy because some idiot thinks that the name is cute," wrote Jackie Dick in the comments on Royal Oak Patch. 

James Hall, the COO at Goin' Postal Franchise Corp. based in Zephyrhills, FL, said they have hundreds of stores across the country.

"I am sorry that some people have taken the name negatively," Hall said. "That was never our intention. We mean no malice."

Hall pointed out the Goin' Postal stores have a partnership with the United States Postal Service (USPS). Stores sell stamps and offer USPS shipping options.

"The post office is a huge ally of ours," Hall said.


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