Such a shame Sasha. Not all of our aging population have bank accounts or if they do then they are also closed so they rely on the PO to lift their pensions and take other monies out.
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Totally agree, our post office is in the local Spar shop and they are so friendly and helpful. Would definitely endorse what you are saying. Such a valuable service and a not to be taken for granted. Sometimes we dont know what we have, until it’s gone 
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Such a shame, I wish they would consider people in the area being served by the PO before they go down the closure route. Sadly it’s just not the case 
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Our local post office is currently up for sale - hopefully their will be a new owner as it would be awful if it had to close. Our ‘main’ Post Office is a counter in a shop in town where there is awful service by most (but not all) of the staff. It’s definitely ‘use it or lose it’ with local facilities (not just POs - shops too).
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As others have said - my post office DOES get paid for every one of my online labels that they scan in. I go in every day with an armful of packages which they have to do nothing at all to but “zap” with their little scanner and they get paid for each and every one! They get extra for the overseas orders (which are about half my orders). The postmaster actually took me to one side one day and asked me not to put them in the box (as I had been doing) but to give them over the counter to scan in so they could earn from it. My little local post office has a permanent lengthy queue so there’s no way I can wait or do anything other online for the purchasing but this way they actually get paid for doing virtually nothing. I just drop my orders at the shop counter and they are always incredibly keen to get their hands on them!
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I am pretty sure my post office dies not do any scanning but simply receives bulky bags which sit there waiting for collection by the RM van later in the day. I will of course ask her Exactly what happens when I go in next but that will not be until end of month as I am away.
I will especially ask Jo how many pennies she gets for each scan she does, if and when she does them, and we can calculate from that her hourly rate 
Put it this way… my postmaster has the charm of a love child of Basil Fawlty and Albert Arkwright (showing my age) but his eyes positively light up when I go in now and he often rushes over to grab what I’m carrying if it’s a big pile. Trust me, if it wasn’t worth his while, he wouldn’t be half as friendly! 
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Hello Rose
The “new” 24 or 48 hour tracked options available online don’t need a signature. Their journey is just tracked. I offer it as an optional extra and it has been quite popular.
Kim
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It’s worth asking. My post office definitely make money from taking my orders in. It was the postmaster that grabbed me one day (heading for the post box as usual with my armful of pre-paid post) and asked me to give it to them over the counter instead so they could earn from it. Perhaps it’s not every PO but mine love me now!
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This is exactly why i refuse to do it online even though its cheaper. They have PURPOSELY made it cheaper to do it online including a free collection from your door …as part of the drive to move EVERYTHING cashless and i refuse to go along with it. They are trying to close all the post offices and its us as consumers who will drive that to happen if we dont say no… even if bribed with cheaper prices. Use your post office or lose it. Xx
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This made me chuckle lol that would be an image that could’nt be unseen, Fawlty and Arkwright 
I would normally agree but would not step foot in our local as damn right rude and do not deserve the business. They moan if you go in with more than 1 package and go slow so a queue builds up behind you.
The Grayshott one. Which involves a drive so out is brilliant and cannot do enough for the customers.
Not all of us are in a position to use a local post office either and have to rely on home collections.
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My problem would be, if my local closed, that I would have to use the main one in town where I told them to their face I would never step inside again as they were absolutely dreadful and rude is too mild a word.
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Absolutely Joy, I completely agree, i choose to visit my post office (National UK Best Post office winner this year 
sorry but as you can guess we are very proud of it) even though it is cheaper online. We don’t have a village shop and our PO is only tiny but she manages to stock basics amd newspapers etc, many of us would be lost without it. I no longer drive so going to a neighbouring village means relying on someone else, we also have quite a few elderly people in the village who totally depend on it. Her family are often seen delivering basic essentials to residents of the village who struggle to get out, things will be very different when we no longer have it. Banking means taking a 13 mile trip to the nearest large town, even our seaside town no longer has banks. Our postmistress has been there around 50 years and is in her 70’s now and I am sure the long hours she works means she will no doubt need to retire soon, as the PO is the front room of her cottage we don’t know what will happen when she does. There are people in the village who work from home and pay their post online and she said she has to handle all the parcels and fit them in the PO but doesn’t earn anything for doing it, a lot of extra work for her with no return. We are lucky to have such lovely people running ours who also do a great deal more for the community and are active in all areas of village life.
We don’t have drop off points or click and collect but we do still have a post office and if we don’t use it we will lose it.
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Our postmistress knows everyone in the village and beyond and also knows everything that happens, if we need to know anything at all it’s the place to ask…typical of a small village and there are some real gossips so nothing gets past her
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Well said! I am getting increasingly concerned about the decrease in services right across the board. As we get older we need post offices, local shops, public transport and banks more and more but you can actually them disappearing, one by one.
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Update. I said I would clarify with Jo my local postmistress about the monies she is paid for post she handles, which she has to store in her very small shop and for which she is legally responsbile until collected by Royal Mail :
- Parcels for which postage is paid over the counter…(All of mine). she is paid properly.
- Parcels for which postage is paid online but which are brought in for her to scan… she receives a pittance, pennies.
- Parcels for which postage is bought online but which she is not required to scan. she receives…in her own words “B***r all”
(she is a very nice post lady and not prone to *** words so she really feels strongly about this !)
I couldnt get right to the counter today as there were two really big parcels stacked infront. They did not need scanning!
So as I said and I told her I had and she was delighted. please, if and when you can, support your local post office and buy your postage over the counter.
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Yes my postmistress says exactly the same Joy, there’s a couple of small businesses in the village that take large items in and she gets nothing for handling them, the PO is tiny and actually originally the front room of her tiny cottage, her living quarters join the PO and most days the doorway to her lounge is blocked with these parcels. I don’t think it is fair at all that a lady in her 70’s has to move them or climb over them until they are collected.
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Just remembered I have another good reason to support my post office.
Jo provides me with most of my boxes which I need for most multi orders and things which don’t fit into my protective boxes. I post out in the oddest containers… usually biscuits, sweets or savoury snack boxes but have occasionally resorted to bleach. I do have to use a lot of brown sticky tape to cover the labels but the brown tape does add an excellent bounce factor.
Trying to get boxes from Tesco is a bit of a game… they can unpack a box and pull it to pieces in 5 seconds flat. Many a time I’ve seen a super sized box being emptied and by the time I’ve got to it it has become flat pack.
I can become quite excited when I actually acquire a nice box
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Oh, I have Post Office box envy now, as I am with you on the box obsession Joy. The excitement of a new box. Am now often more interested in the box than the contents!
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