Past the post? NO!

Grey Lynn residents are preparing to fight the sale of their local NZ PostShop. Hayley Hannan reports.
Jo Goff-Robertson stands in front of Grey Lynn PostShop, the dismay worn in her expression. Handmade posters are plastered behind her - on the entrance and on the internal walls of the premises. "Save our post" they plead, appealing against the shop's sale.
The beige and brown store is one of three being downgraded and two being shut down around Auckland. New Zealand Post is focusing its efforts on 158 corporate stores and streamlining services after warning the Government of a $40 million loss. The Grey Lynn PostShop - a local fixture for more than 20 years - is for sale. It is being sold to become a PostCentre, offering only postal and courier services (see panel).
Ms Goff-Robertson has been a customer here since she moved to the area in the 1990s. "The post office and the library are the centre of the community.
"Taking away the [post] facility is going to be very harsh for the community."
A large group of local pensioners and state housing residents rely heavily on the shop to pay their bills. She says many of these people don't have access to the internet and may not be able to afford extra bus fares. Some of them are no longer able to drive, either. There's talk of Grey Lynn residents going to the Waitemata Local Board, and of starting a petition.
Fellow local June Sparkle is on board. "We saved the library before and we now need to save the post office. It's an institution. If people band together it can be stopped, and it needs to be stopped."
The closure of the post shop affects all the surrounding businesses: the supermarket, pharmacies and cafes, says Paul Dalton, who chairs Grey Lynn Business Association. "The main thing is that it drives business away from the area. People who would have come down to the post office to post letters, pay bills, will go somewhere else now." Although he understands people are choosing the online services more and more, "every so often you just want to communicate with a human being".
New Zealand Post says Grey Lynn residents are well served, with at least four alternative shops accessible within about 3km: Pt Chevalier, Ponsonby, Newton and St Lukes PostShops.
"The low bank usage meant it wasn't sustainable to maintain a Kiwibank operation, but we're pleased to be able to continue providing full postal and courier services," says John Tulloch, external communications head.
More than 40 per cent of Kiwibank's 700,000 customers use online banking and the aim is to have better stores, in the right place, he says. Convenience technology, such as self-service kiosks handling letters, bill payments and parcels, will be tried at selected stores over the next few months.
Mr Tulloch expects changes will be finalised by the end of next month.
Postdated
New Zealand Post has two types of stores: PostShops and PostCentres. The PostShops are corporate stores offering the full monty - postal, courier, KiwiBank and bill payment services. The PostCentres are franchise stores offering postal and courier services only. The franchise stores are branded the same way, but have private owners.