However, one thing that does need to be done at the post office is sending parcels, or other items of heavy post, or international mail. Also, some people would still prefer to pay bills at the post office, and in rural areas with no banks, the cash withdrawal facility is welcome. But there is one snag: post offices are only open during the daytime, during office hours. Often they will be open 9am to 5pm on weekdays, and only to noon on Saturday. Many even close at lunchtime!

The fact is, most people are at work during the times post offices are open, so they are unable to use the services on offer even if they wanted to. They might just call in occasionally on Saturday morning if they need to post a parcel, but they certainly aren’t going to be regular customers. Why can’t post offices stay open until later in the evening and at the weekend? This would allow many new customers to use the services there. Would sub-postmasters complain? If the office opened until 7:30pm two nights a week, it could open later two mornings a week, or they could have two afternoons off. Many post offices are located in convenience stores that stay open late anyway, but the post office counter still shuts at 5pm.

A similar thing happened with public libraries. The numbers using them started to drop off, but they began to diversify and offer a range of new services; they also started to have late-opening nights. If, following the closures, the remaining 11,800 post offices are to survive, I’d suggest they try opening for hours that a larger proportion of the public would find convenient.