APWU Interviews Small Business Owner and Postal Customer, Reshonda Young

In July, small business owner and community advocate Reshonda Young flew with Iowa APWU President Kim Karol to Manhattan to speak for rural communities at the rally against Wells Fargo privatizers and Wall Street banksters. The APWU spoke with her afterwards to discuss the importance of a public Postal Service for our communities and postal customers like her. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Thanks for joining us, Reshonda! Tell us a little about yourself!

I call myself a serial entrepreneur. I live in Waterloo, Iowa, and owned a popcorn store that became a national chain. I sold that and now own a health store and am chartering a bank to address some of the systemic inequities within the banking system. 

Why did you come across the country to attend the rally?

I came to New York to support the postal workers and [the] APWU. As a small business owner, we ship a lot of products, and most are through the Postal Service, [which] is a real partner in my business. As a small business owner, margins are small. We are not Amazon, which has so much volume that it can get volume discounts on your product or shipping. And now with my health store, I ship products to customers, and they’re very price conscious. Times are tough for people, so I know that our customers being able to rely on affordable shipping helps us small business owners. 

What would things look like if shipping rates jumped by 30 to 140%?

Privatization of the Postal Service would affect my ability to get products to a large portion of our customers – like those who are elderly or on low, fi xed incomes. Buying health supplements is cutting into their budget, but they see it as something very benefi cial; however, they can’t afford to add anymore to the cost. As the owner, I have very tight margins, so I can’t absorb as much of the cost as big retailers can. So, if the Post Offi ce were privatized, it would affect selling our product beyond the people who walk into the store or those who have the income to not be affected by the shipping costs.  Also, when I think about postal privatization, I think of the bigger picture – postal workers’ relationship. For example, the postal workers would save boxes for me! They just saw that I was coming in all the time, mailing stuff out. 

Do you think it is important that we’re a union workplace too?

Within every industry, it’s important to take into consideration the voices and needs of the workers. Privatizing the Post Offi ce cuts out unions and the bargaining power of workers. That is not a popular employer opinion but cutting out the [APWU] would be pretty detrimental for good wages, benefi ts, and more. And that has a ripple effect around the country, like on my customers. 

Finally, it was so great seeing you at the rally…

Yes! It was so incredible being at the rally and seeing that solidarity in person. A big part of my heart for unions comes from growing up where my mom and my dad were part of unions…going to the rallies or picket lines or seeing them advocating for what workers needed. I feel like I had a really solid middle-class life growing up simply because my parents were union members. So, it was just great to be amongst that energy.