Major changes for Australia Post as it trials new ‘concept stores’ in regional areas

An onsite barista is just one new feature being rolled out across selected Australian post offices. See what they look like and where the next ones will be.

Fancy a coffee with your parcel pick-up?

Baristas could soon become a permanent feature of post offices across the country, as the one-time thriving service looks for ways to stay profitable beyond the humble letter.

Australia Post is trialling a “concept store” in Orange, NSW, from Monday, which will look and feel more like a shopping mall than a package collection centre.

Aside from brewing espressos, the store will sell a range of goods — from coats and jewellery to electronics, including the iPhone 15 — and offer change rooms for people to try on their online purchases before taking them home.

An Australia Post barista making coffee for mother and daughter Vicky and Laura Baressi (12) at Australia Post's newly refurbished and designed community hub post office in Orange, NSW. Picture: Supplied

It will also trial “digital queuing”, where customers scan a QR code, select their service and receive a text message when it’s their turn.

Dedicated lines for parcel delivery and for small business and separate lines of banking will be offered.

Australia Post’s chief executive Paul Graham said the revamp is essential, as the business grapples with the uneven conundrum of booming parcel delivery and a decline in letters.

The company posted a $200m loss in the 2022-23 financial year, only the second loss since 1989.

Customer Megan using the new change room at the Australia Post Community Hub @ Post in Orange, NSW. Picture: Supplied

“This has been a year in the making and we‘ve been looking at the overall format for our large network, both in terms of what we sell in those post offices, as well as the look and feel of them,” he said.

“The community hub post is the ability for customers within regional towns to come in and have a one-stop shop to do the banking, pay their bills and also get access to a range of local products and general merchandising in their store.”

Australia Post plans to open more community hub posts at Williamstown in Victoria, Burnie in Tasmania and Noosa Heads in Queensland in 2024.

Australia Post CEO Paul Graham inside its newly refurbished and designed community hub at the post office in Orange, NSW. Picture: Supplied

Across Australia, there are 4271 post offices. Some metro stores will close in years to come once they are assessed as unsustainable.

Mr Graham told Senate estimates this week “it makes no sense for Australia Post to keep the same number of post offices”. He used the example of Camberwell, in Victoria, where there are 84 post offices in a 7.5km radius.

“We’re well represented in regional and rural areas where we know it’s critically important the role that we play. But certainly in metropolitan areas, we feel that there is some overlap,” he said.

“We haven’t done a good job in some places and there’s a need for us to modernise the format of the stores, and also narrow the range of products.

“We’ve had far too many products, some of them not really relevant to those demographics that we serve.”

And with 4000 new staff hired to manage soaring parcel volumes ahead of the Christmas rush, the cut-off for parcel delivery will be extended.

“Christmas falls on a Monday, so we will deliver up until the Saturday and then we will do a final sort of sweep on Sunday with anything that is leftover in the network,” Mr Graham said.

Originally published as Major changes for Australia Post as it trials new ‘concept stores’ in regional areas