Altadena pharmacy opens much needed village post office, bring back ‘a little bit of normalcy’

An Altadena institution for almost a century brought back an old service to the community Wednesday, July 16, when Webster’s Community Pharmacy opened a village post office.

A ribbon cutting held outside the pharmacy attended by Supervisor Kathryn Barger along with county and postal service officials marked the opening of a post office counter at the historic haunt, providing a much needed service after the Altadena Post Office just down the road burned down in the Eaton fire.

“It signals that we are bringing businesses back,” Barger said.

Village post offices are located in non-Postal Service establishments and provide a range of services, including the sale of first-class forever stamp booklets, free priority mail flat-rate supplies, prepaid priority mail flat rate products and prepaid mail acceptance.

Meredith Miller, co-owner of Webster’s, said the pharmacy offered postal service for decades at its old location but when it moved to the new smaller space on Lake Avenue, down the street from the Altadena Post Office, it discontinued the service.

“It really just felt incumbent on us to do this,” Miller said. “We’re a fixture in this community, we want to help our customers in any way we can.”

Barger and Altadena leaders present, such as Altadena Town Council Chair and Vice Chair Victoria Knapp and Nic Arnzen, acknowledged the frustration of the community in the immediate aftermath of the fire about having to travel to Pasadena to pick up mail and not having a closer alternative.

“We do want to put a little bit of normalcy back in the community and this is the start,” Postal Service District Manager Cipriano Corona said.

He said the owner of the building that housed the Altadena Post Office is planning to rebuild and that the Postal Service is in conversation about making that a reality.

Webster’s is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The post office counter will be staffed by Webster employees not postal service workers.

“It makes people feel like we’re grounded, we’re starting to put a deeper foot into each of these little corners,” Arnzen said.