Your post office to become convenience store?
Belgium’s partially privatised postal service Bpost is examining whether post offices can be turned into convenience stores. In future you could be able to buy food and newspapers and get a document printed at the post office.
Bpost is in search of extra revenue now that fewer and fewer letters are being sent. Bpost has 660 post offices across Belgium. Its plan is to turn some of these into stores where you can do more than purchase a stamp or dispatch a parcel. The company hopes to turn itself into an omni-commerce enterprise.
Bpost’s Veerle Van Mierlo acknowledges the company is looking for extra revenue, but there is more: “We want to turn our social role into an asset. It’s especially in rural municipalities that residents don’t have ready access to basic services. These could be provided in post offices”.
The plans will be explored and implemented during the next five years.