Rachel Whiteneck, of Hickam Air Force Base, already is a big fan of the Automated Postal Center and used it to mail a package yesterday at the airport post office.

"It's easy, it's so fast, it's great," she said. "I don't have to stand in line."

She said she works from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and doesn't have a lot of time to stand in line.

Honolulu postal service Retail Manager Nancy Wong said consumers can even save money if they "shop for how you ship" and buy items that they know will fit in flat-rate boxes. Before you scoff at the 70-pound limit for the flat-rate boxes, Wong said that a customer who regularly mails fishing weights stays just under that limit.

And she points out that three five-pound bags of rice fit in the flatter box. "It's a really good deal," she said.

Manoa resident Joe Cadette mails items often from the main post office at Honolulu Airport and happened to overhear Wong describing the flat-rate boxes.

He recently heard from a friend who wanted to mail some goji juice to a relative but he hesitated at how much it might cost to mail three fairly heavy bottles of the supplement. Now, Cadette can send the goji at a fraction of what he thought he'd pay. "That really helps to know," Cadette said.

"We're trying to make it easy for people," Wong said, "cheap and easy."

Duke Gonzales, who handles public affairs and communications for the Postal Service in Hawai'i, said an average day in Hawai'i sees about 6 million pieces of mail get processed. But a day in the peak holiday season shoots that up to 8 million pieces a day.

So, with all these free boxes available, why do people ever buy those other packages in the lobby of the post offices? Gonzales said some people probably don't know about the flat-rate boxes; others want to buy a decorated package or a larger one. And if the item weighs less than 3 pounds, it could be cheaper.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.