Appleby-in-Westmorland’s Post Office has relocated into the town’s SPAR store retaining a range of vital services for the rural Cumbrian community.
The move has seen a double counter installed next to the tills within the SPAR store in Boroughgate after the retirement of the Postmaster at the previous location further up the street.
Services offered on the counter include letter and parcel handling, parcel and online order collections, business mail and shipping, and Evri, Amazon, DHL, and DPD services.
Personal banking (deposits and withdrawals), bill payments, car tax payments, passport applications and renewals, and travel money in a range of currencies are also offered.
Enhanced Post Office opening hours are another benefit with the new set-up at SPAR Appleby and the counter is open 8am-6pm seven days a week, adding at least 20 more hours of Post Office service every week for customers living in and around the town.
As part of the reconfigured till area, a self-service till has been installed adjacent to the Post Office positions for customers who prefer that method of payment.
To mark the relocation and retention of service, a celebratory ribbon cutting ceremony was held at SPAR Appleby with the store team, and partnership managers from the Post Office and James Hall & Co. Ltd, owners of SPAR Appleby.
A special SPAR and Post Office themed jam and cream sponge cake was created for the occasion and customers shopping in the store and utilising the new counter were keen to enjoy a slice of the action.
Alison Taylor was one of the first customers to use the new counter. She said: “The retention of the Post Office is fantastic for Appleby as it will continue to bring people into the centre. In turn, that encourages those people to visit other shops and businesses while out and about.
“As a lot of services, particularly banking, move to online, I think it is important to be able to access services in-person. As a regular user of the SPAR, I think it is the best option in Appleby for the counter to be in its new location. Tracy the store manager is brilliant and her team are great – they will bend over backward to help you out.”
Carole Damari, another early customer, said: “The Post Office is a real lifeline for people who live in Appleby. I know a few of the team in the SPAR and I think it will be great in its new home.
“I will be in here regularly doing banking and I think it is important for a town this size to have access to a banking facility. I have just come in to buy stamps, but I will utilise the parcel services too, I am sure.”
Rob Langford, Post Office Network Manager at James Hall & Co. Ltd, said: “We are pleased we have been able to reconfigure our till area and accommodate a dual position counter within our Appleby SPAR store.
“Retaining Post Office services and delivering continuity is a key priority when developments like Postmaster retirements happen, especially in rural communities.
“We have carefully planned this transition to be as seamless as possible, and it is another superb piece of partnership work with the Post Office following on from recent counter openings at other Cumbria SPAR stores in Bowness and Aspatria.”
James Hall & Co. Ltd is a fifth-generation family business which serves a network of independent SPAR retailers and company-owned SPAR stores across Northern England six days a week from its base at Bowland View in Preston.
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