Test Your Vocabulary

[ardcarp]

What social function?

In a village full of the elderly and not very well-off retired, a trip top the village shop-cum-post- office is a pretty important part of the day. Many villages have begun to run such places communally, and in one village near here the PO is now in the local pub and operates during daytime opening hours. Very sociable, I'd say.

[Beef Oven]

I think you will find there are other reasons why post offices aren't surviving. For example:

* Pensions and benefits being paid into bank accounts
* Email taking over from postage
* Being able to do online many things that used to necessitate a visit to a post office (or in some cases, a bank) such as paying bills, getting a tax disc
* Stamps being sold in outlets other than post offices

I't be hard pressed to say when I last set foot in a post office. It must be some years now. So it's also arguable that they are going the same way as hat shops, and for the same reason.

I think you'll find you've not understood my point. Whatever reason puts post offices into decline, there is no reason for them to disappear. Struggling offices that fulfil a vital community service would ordinarily be subsidised - in comes the EU and tells us we can't. Result? Post offices disappear.

[teamsaint]

In a village full of the elderly and not very well-off retired, a trip top the village shop-cum-post- office is a pretty important part of the day. Many villages have begun to run such places communally, and in one village near here the PO is now in the local pub and operates during daytime opening hours. Very sociable, I'd say.

I once had to post something in Paignton on a Thursday. There would have been plenty of time while queuing for a or two.

Like so much, we will miss them when they are gone.

Divide and rule.

[Vile Consort]

I think you'll find you've not understood my point. Whatever reason puts post offices into decline, there is no reason for them to disappear. Struggling offices that fulfil a vital community service would ordinarily be subsidised - in comes the EU and tells us we can't. Result? Post offices disappear.

I understood it perfectly well, thank you.

Why should post offices be any different from butchers or hairdressers?

[jean]

Why should post offices be any different from butchers or hairdressers?

They are different, in that the Post Office's decision about which ones to close often seems entirely arbitrary.

[Beef Oven]

I understood it perfectly well, thank you.

Why should post offices be any different from butchers or hairdressers?

This post shows that you definitely did not understand my point. It may be too simple for your complicated mind. I mean that in the nicest possible way.

[Vile Consort]

If it's that simple you will easily be able to explain it.

[Beef Oven]

If it's that simple you will easily be able to explain it.

Ok, here goes; Whatever reason puts post offices into decline, there is no reason for them to disappear. Struggling offices that fulfil a vital community service would ordinarily be subsidised - in comes the EU and tells us we can't. Result? Post offices disappear.

[Vile Consort]

You keep asserting that post offices provide a vital community service (and presumably one that other types of shop don't). What is lacking is any support for that assertion, or even any indication of what that service consists of.

Post offices don't provide any sort of service - community (whatever that might mean) or otherwise - that I need or want very often. Furthermore, my elderly father and my friends and colleagues also seem to get by quite well without crossing the threshold of a post office from one year's end to the next.

[ardcarp]

Furthermore, my elderly father and my friends and colleagues also seem to get by quite well without crossing the threshold of a post office from one year's end to the next.

All your friends and colleagues? Do they take some sort of PO Abstention Pledge?

[Vile Consort]

I exaggerate - only the ones I've asked. We just don't require the services that post offices provide - it's more convenient to use t'Interweb. We use email for most correspondence; the only things we post are greetings cards, and we can buy stamps when we buy the cards.

Like I asked in my previous post, what are these services that some people seem to find so necessary - presumably more necessary than food.

[Beef Oven]

You keep asserting that post offices provide a vital community service (and presumably one that other types of shop don't). What is lacking is any support for that assertion, or even any indication of what that service consists of.

Post offices don't provide any sort of service - community (whatever that might mean) or otherwise - that I need or want very often. Furthermore, my elderly father and my friends and colleagues also seem to get by quite well without crossing the threshold of a post office from one year's end to the next.

What works for your elderly father and your friends may not work for everyone. If you need someone to explain to you why a post office is a vital community service, then you are either being difficult, or your thinking ability lies elsewhere.

[teamsaint]

and if access to the internet fails/gets more expensive/is restricted, what then? What if companies start charging a premium for online services?

We would be very unwise to put all our eggs in that basket, IMO.

Anyway, I thought choice was the modern mantra......

[jean]

I exaggerate - only the ones I've asked. We just don't require the services that post offices provide - it's more convenient to use t'Interweb. We use email for most correspondence; the only things we post are greetings cards, and we can buy stamps when we buy the cards.

You do realise that non-PO outlets will only sell you inland first class stamps, and that they can charge you what they like for them?

And if you order goods on the Internet, you are very lucky if you never need to return them.

The queues at my local Post Office before it was summarily closed give the lie to your claim, anyway.

[french frank]

The queues at my local Post Office before it was summarily closed give the lie to your claim, anyway.

[Given that we seem to have finished with the vocab test mentioned in the OP ] I live in a mixed residential area of bigger houses and smaller terraces, and I certainly avoid the PO on weekly pension day mornings because of the long queues. People can also get other benefits and tax credit payments there. Some usage figures: http://www.postoffice.co.uk/services...ovide#overview