Rush is on to buy and ship gifts before Christmas
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The bad weather is hitting us as last-minute holiday shopping and shipping are at a crucial moment.
CBS' Danya Bacchus tracked the last-minute efforts to get gifts where they need to go a week before Christmas Day.
The holiday rush is on to travel, shop, and ship.
While people race to post offices around the country, a massive operation to move the mail is underway in Los Angeles at the nation's largest postal processing center.
Are postal employees seeing more packages shipped this holiday season?
"We're running about 35% more than last year," Daniel Hirai said. Hirai serves as a USPS plant manager.
They're sorting one million packages and 800,000 letters a day.
How do employees prepare for that volume of packages?
"It takes an army. We have all of our elves working around the clock," Hirai said.
Adding to the crush is e-commerce.
"Since the pandemic, a lot of customers are ordering online. We're seeing a lot more commercial volume coming into us," Hirai said.
But on this Super Saturday, many Americans are shopping for presents in person.
Dampening the holiday spirit, inflation. In a new poll, 57% of Americans said it's harder to afford gifts this year, compared to 40% last December.
Still, for many, it's a race to beat the clock.
"Hopefully, everything gets there. But my family knows me, they know it's going to be late," one shopper said.
If you missed out on Saturday, the next deadline is Monday for Priority Mail. And your letter or package won't be alone; last holiday season the U.S. Postal Service delivered more than 13 billion pieces of mail.