Big Changes Coming to Missouri Post Offices January 18, 2026

If you rely on the United States Postal Service for shipping items, you need to know about big changes that are coming starting in January of 2026 that will impact all Missouri post offices.

My dad worked for the United States Postal Service in Missouri for more than 3 decades

That's why I know that many will be unhappy with changes that Newsweek says are coming to the USPS starting on January 18, 2026. They say shipping prices are about to go up significantly. Here's what has been proposed:

• 6.6 percent for Priority Mail
• 5.1 percent for Priority Mail Express
• 7.8 percent for USPS Ground Advantage
• 6 percent for Parcel Select

The good news is that stamp prices are not being raised - yet. Yay. There's a reason why the USPS needs to raise shipping prices. They reported a $9 billion dollar loss this year and that's actually an improvement over the year previous where the USPS had a net loss of $9.5 billion. Ouch.

I'm no economist, but I think the one reason why the USPS saw increased business over the last year was because of how affordable the ground advantage shipping was. The fact that this is the one USPS shipping method that will see the biggest increase would seem to nullify that benefit.

One final note. The Newsweek story says that these shipping price increases need to be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission so it's possible that these increases may not happen, but frankly that feels like just a formality. Plan on increased shipping prices starting in January.