I visited the PostShop yesterday at the Westfield Bondi Junction centre in Sydney. This is another of the government owned Australia Post retail outlets. In fact, it’s their showcase store. This is where our postal service struts its stuff and demonstrates its commitment to the provisions of the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989.
At this PostShop one can purchase, exclusively to Australia Post: the Harry Potter Carry Case and Pencil case; Deadly – a book pack by Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman; Wicked – a book pack by Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman; Bill Grainger book pack; Ricoh Capilo digital camera; Faber Castel Connector Express marker set. And that is just the first page.
Please, can someone explain to me the justification for the government owned postal service selling these products which many small businesses would love to have access to.
Australia Post is using the mail delivery brand it has established over years of excellent service to take retail sales out of small business. It is leveraging its exclusive postal service traffic into sales of these other items. Thanks to its exclusive postal service traffic the cost of acquiring each visitor to a Post Shop is far lower than the cost for, say, a newsagent.
When newsagents close due to the competition from these government owned PostShops maybe then the mainstream press or a politician may take notice and wonder whether the policy of leaving the Australia Post executives alone all those years without socially responsible policy direction was the best move.
Australia Post ought to be the post office and not some chain of mid size department stores taking revenue from small business and putting people out of work. They do so using an unfair playing field and with the blessing of the government.