Amazon has become the default choice for too many people, why buy in person when Amazon will deliver next day for £95 a year.
This is the thing. The internet is the competition and so really just have one type of each shop on the high street is as much as we can hope for.
The point is surely that Smugs were a jack of all trades store, but have lacked compelling reasons to visit - there are adequate high street equivalents for any individual product they sell. That's what did for Woolies back in the day, and will do for others.
Well. There was always going to be some competition back in the day BUT the new kid on the block is the internet.
In my mind this actually makes the high street the perfect place for independents. I'm not going to get a handcrafted table from a storm-fallen tree on Amazon, but I might get one from a carpenter or indy furniture maker on the high street, who may even do me the favour of getting it into the dining room.
Post Offices are a franchise model. The Post Office counter will be run by TG Jones (or Co-op, Morrisons Daily, the corner shop etc.) who receive a payment for each transaction.
For anything I can do in my local branch of Smugs, I have the choice of Rymans, The Works, Boyes, Morrisons, B&M, Card Factory, an independent bookshop and newsagents. And that's within 5 minutes' walk. Other options are available if I'm willing to walk a little further - and then I can look online.
www.theguardian.com
This is very much what I pray survives on the high street.
What could be better than seeing and touching a product in your own home for up to 30 days? Even if you decide not to keep it and have to pay to send it back it's likely to cost less than town centre parking or bus/train fare. As a by-product there are many online 'outlet' retailers where you can buy returned products at significant discounts.
No independent hardware stores? One of the few types of independents to survive round here (though not in the quantities there once were).
My local sub-PO is very keen that letters and parcels paid for online are posted through them, so they get the commission, rather than going direct into the postbox. As for lockers and smart postboxes, Royal Mail (at least) are making them easier and easier to use.
That is the case in Croydon since we lost Turtles. We naver had a Wilko and Robert Dyas came and went. The only stores that some would call hardware stores that we have are selling plastic things and a basic set of what are hardware (screws etc) but at inflated prices.
I've never seen a "smart postbox" but RM lockers have label printers (at least the ones here do), and you can optionally ask them to bring a label if you pay for a collection
Furthermore Royal Mail seem to favour parcels business over the letter post service they have a monopoly on. So I am moved to boycot Royal Mail parcels service !.
Realistically, I can't see much option for Royal Mail other than one of two:
What would help would be for the end-to-end universal service obligation to be applied to anyone offering a year-round letter processing service. No more cherry-picking!
Would anyone actually want to join this game though? If I were to try and start a letter processing service in the UK today, it would cost a fortune and to make my money back I'd have to charge many times higher than what Royal Mail do with their existing infrastructure, and even they're making a loss and trying to prioritise parcels. Constrained by the current USO, the cost of posting a letter with a new company would be exceptionally high.
No one does provide that, while Royal Mail's wholesale business is deliberately designed to allow them to cover the costs of the final delivery.
You might want to give Addiscombe DIY just down from the tram stop a try, I've heard that they're a good old fashioned hardware store.
Eliminating next day delivery could offer substantial savings. The Royal Mail transport network operates an internal timetable of connecting services to make it work and often runs cross-empty moves if a back working is at risk of getting late.
To make a pedantic note, Post Office have no involvement in the delivery service, which is entirely provided by Royal Mail.
There is an option "3", possibly in combination with 1 and/or 2 which involves a very different approach to pay, contracts, working patters and benefits in order to reduce employment costs. (I deliberately offer no opinion on whether this is "fair" to Royal Mail staff.)
I agree. Something needs to be decided. I fear, however, that the UK carries on with an ignore the issue and it will go away approach.
That is the fear. However I don't think much competition has appeared and I think it is too expensive to start up.
I really must. It is not in my sphere of travels BUT its all free on an old wrinkly's Oyster.
The reality is that we have had the internet as a mainstream activity for 30 years.
Exactly, I think it would be hard to find someone who has never used some form of computer now and almost everyone will have used the internet.
My 88 year old father has never used a computer or smartphone, neither does he have email. He also refuses to use self service check outs.
