Five staff at Carterton's Post Shop Kiwibank stand to lose their jobs or perhaps be offered work at branches elsewhere, because of a major New Zealand Post shake-up of postal and banking services for the town.
In the reshuffle, which is linked to a nationwide overhaul of store networks, banking services
will be withdrawn from Carterton.
Postal, courier, bill payment and post office box services will remain but will be provided from a new Post Centre to be opened "in a convenient location".
Banking customers who remain with Kiwibank will have to use stores in either Greytown - the closest at 8.5km away - or in Masterton.
The store change date is yet to be fixed but New Zealand Post expects it to be sometime in July and has promised to tell customers and media well in advance.
Carterton's changes, along with others throughout the country, have been brought about to ensure an ongoing, commercially viable business, says New Zealand Post.
It says customer behaviour has become more sophisticated in the past five years.
Communications manager John Tulloch said, for instance, New Zealand Post knows more people are using the convenience of paying bills online.
Kiwibank customers registered for online banking has doubled in five years, approaching 500,000.
"New Zealanders are also changing where and how they shop," Mr Tulloch said.
More people were using malls and large shopping complexes.
Carterton is one of seven stores throughout the country that will change to become a Post Centre.
The others are three outlets in Auckland, Fitzroy in Taranaki, the Manawatu Mail Centre in Palmerston North and a store in Miramar, Wellington.
The shake-up also involves four stores in Auckland, two in Wellington and one in Dunedin closing all together.
The changes could affect as many as 90 staff and there may be redundancies.
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