My local post-office counts as rural, as does the baker, the butcher/game-dealer, the greengrocer... they all have one fundamental problem that will contribute to their downfall.
They're not open when I'm available to shop. So I go to the supermarket which _does_ have early/late opening. Or I renew my car-tax online rather than doing it at the post-office.
For a post-office or shop, opening traditional-style 9-to-5 weekdays means that you're essentially limiting your customer-base to people who don't work. The elderly; the unemployed; stay-at-home parents. Such people don't generally fit into high-disposable-income demographic groups.
Far better for a shop/p.off to open 06:00-10:00 [to catch people on their way to work/the morning school-run] and 15:00-20:00 [to catch the second school-run and people coming home from work].
And small shops should open all-day saturday [when people have time to shop] rather than closing at 1PM like they do round here!
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They're not open when I'm available to shop. So I go to the supermarket which _does_ have early/late opening. Or I renew my car-tax online rather than doing it at the post-office.
For a post-office or shop, opening traditional-style 9-to-5 weekdays means that you're essentially limiting your customer-base to people who don't work. The elderly; the unemployed; stay-at-home parents. Such people don't generally fit into high-disposable-income demographic groups.
Far better for a shop/p.off to open 06:00-10:00 [to catch people on their way to work/the morning school-run] and 15:00-20:00 [to catch the second school-run and people coming home from work].
And small shops should open all-day saturday [when people have time to shop] rather than closing at 1PM like they do round here!