Post Office opening hours

TonyR

We used to live in a town on the ourskirts of Leeds with a large "main" Post Office, the opening hours of which were of no use to a working family as the only time it was practical to go was on a Saturday morning, when it was absolutely heaving.

Now we live in a little village on the outskirts of York that has a village store, within which is a sub-Post Office that is open the same hours as the store. Given the store is open until 9pm every day (including Sundays) that means the Post Office is too! How good is that??

I sold something on eBay this evening and was able to send it immediately - something I would not have been able to do back at our old place in Leeds.

octatonic

Cor Blimey!

Flink_Poyd

Our sorting office office are similarly laughable, they close at 1800. If I get a card left on a Monday I usually can't get it until the Saturday. I avoid eBay sellers who use Royal Mail for anything that can't go through the letter box 

TTony

The PO is gradually changing - or "modernising".

The main POs - the big ones that you find in many town centres - are typically PO owned & staffed by PO employees.  These have characteristics that are recognisable from the old state-owned days ... They're referred to as "Crown" offices, which may be a throwback to the Royal Mail days (I don't know the actual history).

There are fewer and fewer of these as they get modernised away.

Similarly, there are fewer and fewer of the traditional old sub-POs, that were typically in the smaller towns and villages.  They sold stamps, did your car road tax, and doled out pensions on a Thursday.  Some sold envelopes or birthday cards.  In the early days, postmasters (and in later days, postmistresses!), earned a decent wage from the PO, and enhanced that with their sales of envelopes etc.  The PO has gradually squeezed down those wages (and upped the overheads and compliance costs) to the extent that these sub-POs are largely no longer viable.  Unless they sell a lot of envelopes.  

They're all being replaced with PO counters in other outlets.  It might be your local Co-op, or a petrol station, or basically any location that is deemed suitable by the PO (accessibility, turnover potential, owner passes their checks, etc).  You'll find a discrete counter in these shops, able to provide the basic PO services.

The new outlets will be paid mainly on turnover.  They have to be open longer hours to maximise volumes.

Which is good for the consumer of course.