This is another PO where I have limited business (usually that business involves buying stamps),…read morebut it's the closest one to where I live. The configuration of Liberty Corner's "center of town" is not ideal; it's a "traffic circle" with a flagpole in the middle and traffic coming from every direction imaginable, with a lot of drivers unsure of which lane is supposed to yield, and which isn't. At least that's my perception of it. The overall design looks like it was engineered in the horse and buggy days and hasn't deviated an inch from that initial design in the many decades since, despite the emergence of cars, trucks, motorcycles, SUVs, etc. Luckily, there's usually not a lot of traffic depending on the time of day you're driving here.
(Irrelevant aside: Liberty Corner was really my 1st exposure to Somerset County, way back when. When my parents were looking to move from Passaic County to Somerset during my teen years...my father was part of the AT&T exodus from NYC to Bedminster...they used the services of a real estate agent working a few doors down from where the Domino Pizza is now. I remember Liberty Corner looking pretty much then as it looks now, and thinking at the time with some ambivalence and anxiety, "It looks...quaint. What do the kids living in such a... quaint ...town do for fun?" My father drove down from Wayne, lugging me and my sister along with him, and I remember the agent showing us a nearby house, which had 1 room with a wallpaper design that depicted nothing but realistically rendered nude women. As an overly hormonal teen, my enthusiastic reaction was, "This is the house, Dad! It's perfect! And this room is mine!" I thought if I were ensconced in that particular room, I'd never have to shoplift another girly magazine from the Preakness luncheonette ever again. However, my somewhat puritanical father put the kabosh on that particular house, although I don't know if the deciding factor was the nude wallpaper or just the fact that he didn't like the house. Anyway...)
Once you navigate the traffic circle, you have to enter the PO parking lot carefully, or you might bottom out. I never have bottomed out here, but if your shocks or struts are in less-than-ideal shape, you'd better proceed cautiously. Once you're up the little hill, the PO is to your right. The parking lot forms an L shape, and in the back is a nail salon and a hair studio. Parking space is pretty plentiful; I've yet to encounter a problem with it here. Inside is the lobby with private rentable PO boxes, wall slots to mail letters, and then, through glass doors, a smaller lobby where customers line up in front of the service desk/window in order to transact whatever PO business they've come to transact. It's not too big of an area, but I've never encountered much of a crowd. The last time I was here, it was a bit disconcerting, because no one was at the front window/desk. Obviously, they were working in the back. There's an old-fashioned "call bell" placed on the desk, but I've never been comfortable ringing it. Makes me think instinctively of some old arrogant character actor like Sig Ruman or maybe Margaret Dumont, ringing the bell repeatedly with authoritative pomposity and an ingrained sense of entitlement.
Realistically, though, if I didn't ring the bell, my only option would be to yell out, "Service! I'd like some service!" Which seems kinda rude and rube-like, at least to me. So, choosing what I viewed as the lesser of 2 evils, I rang the bell, and Anthony, the postmaster mentioned in the other review on this particular PO, came out promptly from the back. He was friendly, and gracious. I mumbled something about being uncomfortable ringing the bell. He paused a moment, perhaps unsure of how to respond to that, and asked pleasantly, "How can I help you?" Book of stamps, please. I exchanged a $20 bill for the book of stamps, was given change, and was on my way, all in less than 2 minutes.
I've never mailed a package from here, or engaged in any of the other services people engage in when they enter a PO, but I can't imagine it's any more arduous or difficult than buying the stamps. And as for buying the stamps, I've never been here longer than a few minutes, even when there are, on that rare occasion, people in front of me.
On leaving, I instinctively tense up, always thinking my car will bottom out (I tend to think of myself as having been born under an unlucky star, so I'm always braced for the worst-case scenario to occur in nearly any situation I find myself in; yeah, I am a lot of fun and a bundle of laughs to hang around with, obviously). But, all things being equal, that's about the only "unpleasantness" I've ever experienced here...my paranoid perception that I might bottom out as I pull out into the negligible "traffic flow" of that ancient Liberty Corner traffic circle. No trouble parking, no long lines inside, friendly and prompt service...what's to complain about really?
Nothing.
Recommended.
