Post Office is biggest firm open on Sunday - as Shropshire leads way
The Post Office has become the largest UK retailer open on a Sunday, with 3,800 branches doing business seven days a week. And Shropshire is helping to lead a revolution in the way the Post Office operates.
It has seen rural offices closing and moving into convenience stores in order to survive.
The change has led to thousands of outlets offering longer opening hours, with the number opening on Sundays up nationally to 1,000 in 2013.
Post Office research showed that almost a third of people were more likely to use their Post Office branch if it was open on Sundays.
Alex Medhurst, owner of Hodnet Village Store near Market Drayton, today said he has seen a change since adopting a post office into his shop.
The existing post office in Station Road, Hodnet, was closed and relocated 600 metres to Hodnet Village Stores in Church Street.
It is the latest post office in Shropshire to relocate. Among the others are the one in Bayston Hill, near Shrewsbury, which closed in its existing premises in Lansdowne Road and reopened in the nearby Spar shop. Mr Medhurst now opens the Hodnet Post Office from 8am until 2pm every Sunday for his customers.
He said: "People who haven't used the shop, who only came to use the post office have started to walk around the shop a lot more and look around. It's great, very easy, I can do everything in one location.
"It is still quite early, people are still getting used to the idea of the post office being in the shop."
Kevin Gilliland, Post Office network and sales director, said: "I'm delighted that millions of people across the UK can now access Post Office services seven days a week. We are building a secure financial footing to maintain our services at the heart of communities for the future.
"Our modernisation plan is all about getting better for customers and making sure that branches across the country offer opening hours to meet their customers' needs, with Sunday opening increasing rapidly across our network."
