Post Office closures

[Drago]

Our local Shell petrol station does the same. The other punters love it when I wander in at rush hour and given the lone cashier a parcel and 3 minutes work that has to be done right then.

 

[biggs682]

They will be missed no matter where they are.

 

[AndyRM]

I reckon it's of interest to folk without any necessity for it to get political.
I'm sure Nacarites can start their own tantrums about it if they so wish. 😊

Ooooh, there's a name for our little collective? Cute.

Anyway, this is only an "at risk" list currently, so maybe some will be fine, maybe some won't. The ones in Sunderland and South Shields are probably done for.

The Royal Mail was slow to diversify and will probably never recover to the glory dayes of yore which people seem keen on.

 

[Time Waster]

Lancaster shut down years ago and AFAIK the building is not being used, that was the case last time I went past. There is now a post office counter in the centre in WHSMITHS.

Now Kendal is closing. There is no town centre post office alternative but there is a quiet WHSMITHS that could take over with a counter I reckon. There will be a place in one of the named suburbs of Kendal nop doubt but I do not know where. Not an issue for me as my local store that opens early and closes late has a counter. It is well used and doing well. Unlikely to close. However there are other, smaller villages that have lost their post office counter alongside their village store. The next village (as opposed to hamlet) has a village store that it some kind of charity company run by the village. That has a counter too. However it is relying on pensioners to keep it running as it is not really a busines but a service.

 

[Drago]

Ooooh, there's a name for our little collective? Cute.

At risk of revealing myself to be very dense (again) I must ask, what collective?

 

[Time Waster]

There was a story about the RM modernising on news today. I didn't catch it all but there is talk from some RM / PO expert who says the system of postmaster supplying the service will need to change to direct employed and run. Apparently there are too many effectively working for less than minimum wage because the system no longer pays them enough to do thousands of small transactions. Basically the PO is fooked and needs complete shake up not just tweaking and reduction of the network.

 

[AndyRM]

At risk of revealing myself to be very dense (again) I must ask, what collective?

See the post I quoted.

"Nacarites". Not exactly a collective, and I don't want this post to cross the boundaries or anything so I'll leave it there.

 

[Drago]

See the post I quoted.

"Nacarites". Not exactly a collective, and I don't want this post to cross the boundaries or anything so I'll leave it there.

Ah, sorry. I clearly am dense!

 

[wiggydiggy]

Our local Shell petrol station does the same. The other punters love it when I wander in at rush hour and given the lone cashier a parcel and 3 minutes work that has to be done right then.

Theres joke I heard once, possibly Lee Evans, about the variety of things you can buy in a petrol station. He once bought some garden furniture there but it took ages as they had to saw it up really small to fit through the hatch

 

[Psamathe]

There was a story about the RM modernising on news today. I didn't catch it all but there is talk from some RM / PO expert who says the system of postmaster supplying the service will need to change to direct employed and run. Apparently there are too many effectively working for less than minimum wage because the system no longer pays them enough to do thousands of small transactions. Basically the PO is fooked and needs complete shake up not just tweaking and reduction of the network.

It's an interesting aspect and I wonder the extent that small local convenience store sub-post office counters avoid some of the problems. One local sub-Post Office I tend to use these days is in a small village convenience store, just a small counter. Store is almost always empty of customers so person serving me is going to be there anyway to serve shop customers, they just wander across to the PO counter, take my parcel, etc. then when done wander back to the shop counter to wait for next customer. I don't know the economics of small convenience stores but my impression is that such outlets have no additional staffing costs and lose a tiny area of the shop that they are paying for anyway. But I can see there maybe some extra costs eg insurance with a lot more cash in the safe.

But then there's the aspect of "trust" in trusting those ("supplier side")you are doing business with ...

Ian

 

[PeteXXX]

If anyone us interested in moving this to The Other Place, send me a letter enclosing an SAE and I'll get it arranged.. 👍

 

[Time Waster]

There is more cost in it I think. Another store found it was too costly compared to the benefit to keep up on the systemic side of it like training and actually being qualified to be a subpostmaster that they stopped doing it. It was a last ditch attempt to keep the store open by ditching the service that did not pay its way but it did close a few years later.

 

[wiggydiggy]

It's an interesting aspect and I wonder the extent that small local convenience store sub-post office counters avoid some of the problems. One local sub-Post Office I tend to use these days is in a small village convenience store, just a small counter. Store is almost always empty of customers so person serving me is going to be there anyway to serve shop customers, they just wander across to the PO counter, take my parcel, etc. then when done wander back to the shop counter to wait for next customer. I don't know the economics of small convenience stores but my impression is that such outlets have no additional staffing costs and lose a tiny area of the shop that they are paying for anyway. But I can see there maybe some extra costs eg insurance with a lot more cash in the safe.

But then there's the aspect of "trust" in trusting those ("supplier side")you are doing business with ...

Ian

My nearest actually has a now closed full post office counter, with all the time locked safe and associated bullet proof glass in it at the back of the shop, its been replaced with just the counter your describing. I asked them about it last week (as I like asking pointless questions about old things) and they said they can't actually remove it as its all still owned by the post office.

 

[oldwheels]

We have a very small one counter office now in a very cramped building but it seems to have two counter staff. My main interest is in getting renewals of eg Calmac concession card etc. They sell local calendars where the profits go to local charities and about this time of year I buy some as pressies.
The sorting office is in the same building but parking for loading vans is a nightmare. Currently they are advertising for a postperson as they are one short.
It is not on the at risk list and would be a major problem for a lot of people if it was to close.

 

[AndyRM]

We have a very small one counter office now in a very cramped building but it seems to have two counter staff. My main interest is in getting renewals of eg Calmac concession card etc. They sell local calendars where the profits go to local charities and about this time of year I buy some as pressies.
The sorting office is in the same building but parking for loading vans is a nightmare. Currently they are advertising for a postperson as they are one short.
It is not on the at risk list and would be a major problem for a lot of people if it was to close.

Think this goes for all delivery services, many of them seem to apply a model which doesn't account for highlands, islands or just living in the arse end of nowhere.