The Post Office Stamp Machine

It can't have been too far back, because the drywall patch hasn't been painted yet, but they removed the stamp machine from the post office in Ballard.  Why would you remove the machine that allows people to purchase stamps without waiting in line?  Ominously, the sign next to the patched drywall where formerly the stamp machine stood advised buying them online by mail or at an authorized agent--oddly, the counter, at that hour closed, was not mentioned.  I wanted to yell back and ask a disembodied voice what was going on, but decided that I will wait, perhaps tomorrow I will try and get there during counter hours and buy some stamps.  I sort of think the post office doesn't want my business.  Hundreds of post cards sent, and they don't like me.  Hours of reading material for the postal clerk, but still they don't like me, and want to make purchasing stamps difficult, even after my trip was there to both drop off mail and visit the stamp machine, getting my dollar coins as change, which I guess now I have to get at the bank, since the only reliable machines to get them from were the ones in the post office.  The other thing that just crossed my mind is that our post office has decided to take a clue from the Europeans, where I don't think I have seen a stamp machine before, and I certainly don't recall one in any of the places I have been there in the last ten years, though most post offices here had them--with the vanished machine in Ballard, I can no longer confidently say the post offices here have them.  Life is change, though I don't know if change is always good.