I was surprised to see this sign outside the Government owned Australia Post store at Forest Hill yesterday. Not only is Australia Post pushing deeper into traditional newsagency lines but they are discounting Christmas cards at a time when there should be no discount. I suspect that the supplier of greeting cards is funding this. Australia Post would have relied on their network size, established by virtue of their Government monopoly and protection, to negotiate the deal.
Card experts tell me that Australia Post does not do that well with greeting cards. Maybe so. however, the category is there in Post Shops, at the front and making their businesses look like newsagencies.
I wish that Post Offices were Post Offices as they are in many other countries and that the Government retail network of 860 or so stores stopped trying to take customers from newsagencies like mine. They abuse their government ownership to their competitive advantage. Rather than offering an incidental service as the Act under which they operate states, they aggressively pursue their small bus8iness competitors.