Whether it’s a birthday card, bills or junk mail, soon, you may have to wait until Monday to get it.

The U.S. Postal Service, in an effort to cut costs, has renewed efforts to eliminate Saturday delivery.

But that’s just fine with many local residents.

"I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. You either get it on Saturday or Monday," said Matt Brown, who works at Rinker Materials in Gainesville. "... To me, it wouldn’t affect me too much, I don’t think."

Brown added that he hasn’t gotten work mail delivered on Saturday in a long time, and it hasn’t been a problem.

Eliminating Saturday delivery also wouldn’t bother Ramon Vega, who subscribes to Netflix, a movie rental firm that mails rentals and returns.

"With Netflix, if I don’t get the movie through the mail, I can just watch them online," he said.

According to a plan from the Postal Service, titled "Ensuring a Viable Postal Service for America: An Action Plan for the Future," eliminating Saturday delivery could save about
$3 billion annually. It’s part of an effort to fend off a projected $7 billion loss this year.

According to a Gallup Poll published in February, 57 percent of Americans surveyed said they would prefer the Postal Service cut back on services such as Saturday delivery in order to get out of its financial difficulties. Other options included providing government funding or raising stamp prices.

Postal Service employees likely would be most affected by the change.

Phyllis Mote, a carrier with the Gainesville post office on Green Street, sees upsides and downsides to such a move.

"What most people would say, ‘Oh, it’s great. We’ll be like normal people; we can have Saturdays off,’" she said. "But it will hurt people’s jobs ... and there are customers that need checks."

Mote said the carriers in the Green Street office rotate days off in addition to Sunday, when the Postal Service is closed.

She has been a carrier for almost 25 years and said she has seen mail volume decline.

"I guess they’re really cutting back to try to save money, and of course volume has been going down for a long time," Mote said.

Monday is usually the heaviest day because the office is closed Sunday, she said.

Tracy Davis, delivery supervisor at the Green Street post office, which employes about 45 carriers, said cutting Saturday delivery would make Monday volume even higher. But overall mail volume is down.

"It’s definitely down from at least a year ago," Davis said.

As Americans turn from paper to electronic communications, the number of items handled by the Postal Service fell from 213 billion in 2006 to 177 billion last year. Volume is expected to shrink to 150 billion by 2020.

Lynn Wallace, a spokeswoman with Georgia Power, which serves much of the Gainesville area, said paper billing has decreased as more people pay online.

"Back in 2004, about 47 percent, almost 48 percent, of our customers were paying through the mail, but now it’s like 33 percent," Wallace said. "So it’s dropped pretty significantly. And electronic payments have gone up. About 17 percent of our customers ... paid electronically back in 2004, but as of 2009, 34.7 (percent)."

Those who do pay bills by mail may have to think further ahead to get payments in on time. Wallace said for Georgia Power, bills must be in the office and not just postmarked by the due date.

Getting bills on time is not as much of an issue, though, as getting checks in the mail.

Some people depend on getting checks on Saturdays, said Amber Ferguson of Gainesville, who said she’s not a fan of cutting Saturday service.

"A lot (of mail) just barely gets there on Saturday. They should start on Sunday," Ferguson said.

But Postmaster General John Potter said something must be done. Without drastic action, the agency could face a cumulative loss of $238 billion over 10 years, Potter said in releasing a series of reports on its operations and outlook.

"The projections going forward are not bright," Potter said in a recent briefing. But, he added, "all is not lost ... we can right this ship."

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate subcommittee with oversight authority over the Postal Service, called on Congress to give the post office the flexibility to deal with its future needs. Approval from Congress is required for the Postal Service to cut a day of delivery.

"In light of the serious financial challenges facing the Postal Service, postal management must be allowed to make the business decisions they need to stay competitive and viable in the years to come. As we have seen, it is not productive for Congress to act like a 535-member board of directors and constantly second-guess these necessary changes," Carper said in a statement.

Potter said he would like to see mail delivery cut to five days a week starting next year.

Other options the Postal Service is considering to cut costs include opening postal facilities in convenience stores and supermarkets and closing standalone post offices.

Only after such new facilities were available would a local post office close, Potter said.

Raising rates is also possible.

Under the law, the agency is not supposed to raise rates more than the amount of inflation, but there is a loophole allowing for higher increases in extraordinary situations such as the current recession and drop in mail volume.

"We need to walk slowly and very, very careful" in raising prices, Potter said, noting that increases can also drive business away.

A proposal before the Postal Regulatory Commission has estimated that increases of 3 percent this year and 10 percent next year would be needed to get the agency back to break-even.

Later this month, Potter said, the Postal Service will ask the independent Postal Regulatory Commission to review its plans for the service reduction.

For now, Postal Service employees are taking a wait-and-see approach.

"We keep thinking it’s going to happen, but we don’t know," Mote said.

Forsyth County News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.