Wednesday, December 03, 2008

I'm just going down the Post Office for a telescope

Elf reports that the latest Australia Post catalogue has 2 pages of stationery, and 14 pages of;

Onix Docking Station Speaker System [Comes with 7 iPod cradles], Skull Candy (ear plugs), Navman F15 GPS, dartboards, remote controlled cars, golf putting sets, massagers, picnic kits, bbq tool kits, TELESCOPES, soft toys...

Here is my theory. The long term plan when the Postmaster General's Department (as it then was) was founded in 1898, was to get a large slice of postal market share, then gradually shift sideways into their real core strength, battery-powered novelties.

3 comments:

Wendy said...

Okay, I don't get this... your post office sells STUFF?

By the way, we nearly have the Australians surrounded on your flags. We expect a surrender any day now. :)

Chris Rees said...

It started with a few pens and envelopes. Then the Filofax. Now BOOM - telescopes.

But from what I hear, they are still better at actually delivering letters than the US Post.

Wendy said...

Wouldn't be surprised. My mom is currently living in a suite at the back of our office while she is finishing building her house. She called the PO yesterday to tell them she was having trouble because they weren't forwarding her mail properly. They said she can't forward her mail from here because it's a business. She said we'd have to close the business down and then they can forward it. Huh??

I did hear the Italian postal service is very poor so at least I know we're not the worst. Since you're getting all these flags maybe you should do a survey of postal services around the world.