When I bought my Easter cards the other day, I also asked for a book of 12 second class stamps and she said they don’t sell them in twelves any more only eights so it must be 8 and 16 instead of 6 and 12 and the stamps were double the size of the old ones which also annoyed me because they don’t fit into the sleeve in my purse now.
I hardly ever send anything 1st Class nowadays - I send most birthday cards in plenty of time and use a 2nd class stamp - but most of them seem to arrive the next day, so it makes me wonder if anyone bothers to use 1st Class postage nowadays.
I still have enough 1st and 2nd Class Stamps to see me through this year’s postal needs, including the next lot of Christmas cards - after that I may have to re-think my card-sending and letter-writing habits.
Until now, I’ve always preferred to send handwritten letters and cards to friends and family who live far away - and Birthday and Christmas gifts by small parcel post - but the cost is becoming prohibitive now.
I can see why people order gifts online to be delivered directly instead of buying gifts locally and sending them by post - it works out better value for money and I have started to do it myself sometimes - although I hate not being able to see what I have bought and not being able to wrap it with personal touches.
Quite a few of my friends and family have started to use e-mail messages, e-cards and social media to send Birthday and Christmas Greetings now - with many of them making donations to charitable causes at Christmas, equivalent to the money they would have spent on postage stamps.
Then you must ask yourself why your wages are lower than ours yet postage costs so dramatically higher with far less distances to cover.
That’s partly true but it is a cycle that needs to be broken by innovation, Australia Post has a profit of over $4billion driven by online buying creating a massive parcel service profit which more than absorbs the cost of letter post. They have also reduced deliveries of letters to every other day but th cost of stamps is very affordable
It’s because we pay our own more, that attracts foreign workers to come here Swim. As a result of being in the EU when the playing field wasn’t level, it resulted in workers from foreign countries earning twice as much here as they could at home. We should have scrapped the minimum wage, and paid our workers the same as a Polish worker.
I was paid the wage that came with the job Melgal, not necessarily the minimum wage, but I worked lots of overtime, sometimes unwanted, but all the mail has to be delivered before returning to the office. Once you take the mail out of the office it becomes your responsibility.
At that time I needed a job, so I would have taken the job whether it was ‘Minimum Wage’ or not. You should be paid what you are worth and not because there is a minimum fixed amount. Inexperienced School leavers are unlikely to be employed when they can pay an experienced older person to do the job for the same pay. But it’s okay, we can send all the school leavers to University whether they are academic or not, the workers on minimum wage can support them in taxes and national insurance. You should have to earn a living, not be entitled to it.
I was a Postman in London (SW1) in the early 70s and certainly not on the minimum wage. As an electronics technician I was being offered about £35 pw give or take, so I took a job as a Postman starting at $50pw.
It was only for about 7 months as I was saving the air fare for my family and I to return to Australia.
Youngsters don’t get the same minimum wage as older people. And neither do apprentices.
Previous rate Rate from April 2022 Increase
National Living Wage £8.91 £9.50 6.6%
21-22 Year Old Rate £8.36 £9.18 9.8%
18-20 Year Old Rate £6.56 £6.83 4.1%
16-17 Year Old Rate £4.62 £4.81 4.1%
Apprentice Rate £4.30 £4.81 11.9%
Accommodation Offset £8.36 £8.70 4.1%
Therein lies the difference between your mail service and ours, Bruce. According to Wiki, Royal Mail Group plc is a British multinational postal service and courier company. The company’s subsidiary, Royal Mail Group Ltd, operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide.
In effect, Royal Mail and Parcelforce are 2 separate companies that have their own separate corporate structures and make their own profits/losses.
In Iceland a four pinter has just gone up from £1.25 (this time last year it was £1) to £1.29. In my little Tesco it’s £1.30 and in the Co-op it’s £1.50, but two for £2.60 and if you use your loyalty card you get 5 points which is worth 5p. I bought two from there today and got my 5 points lol