If you haven't wanted to spend almost $9 buying a book of stamps, you've been able to buy individual stamps at post office vending machines. But at the end of February, those machines will be gone.

The vending machines have been an alternative to buying stamps from the postal clerk. That's something, of course, you can't do after hours.

"Locally, within our own staff, we're concerned about how we'll handle the difference from where people go from the machine to the line", says Parkersburg Postmaster Greg Church.

The U.S. Postal Service says people have found other ways to buying stamps...from local retailers to over the phone, fax or the internet. In rural areas, some postal carriers sell them. in some locations, as few as three people a month have used them.

"The number of people using the machines has decreased," says Dave Walton, spokesman for the service's Appalachian district. "There are so many other options now to buy stamps that a lot of people are going to those other options. At first, I'm sure people will be inconvienenced. People don't like change."

One concern is that the current machines don't take plastic. A new generation of machines are coming out which do.

"There's a new line of machines called A.P. coming out, which takes a debit or credit card," Church says. "I don't know where we stand getting those out in our area yet."

The postal service also says the vending machines were prone to breakdowns, and that the parts are no longer available to repair them.

The machines are due to be eliminated by February 29th.