By Alesha Capone
The Werribee South General Store is celebrating a successful campaign to become a Community Postal Agency.
In February, Star Weekly reported that the store’s owner, Gary Hardman, had begun a petition to become a Community Postal Agency (CPA).
Australia Post has more than 700 community agencies which offer varying mail and postage services.
Mr Hardman started the petition in response to customer comments that they would like a local postal service to pick up parcels.
About 600 people signed the petition.
Last week the general store officially started operating as a CPA.
“I would like to thank Australia Post and our friend and customer Tim, who helped us along the way,” Mr Hardman said.
“We’ve been getting about 10 to 15 parcels per day.
“We’ve had a lot of people saying how fantastic it is they can stay in Werribee South to pick up a parcel.
“Also, we’re open until 6pm, which gives people a bit of flexibility, as most post offices close at 5pm or 5.30pm.”
Mr Hardman said the store carried a range of prepaid options for people wanting to send envelopes and parcels in the mail, and that customers could also pick up parcels in-store.
However, parcel which cannot fit inside a 5 kilogram bag, still need to be mailed from a fully-licensed post office.
As a CPA, the general store cannot offer all the services that a fully-licensed post office does, such as accepting bill payments.
Details: www.facebook.com/werribeesouth/ or www.instagram.com/werribeesouthgeneralstore/?hl=en
