Study backs local shops as PostNL opens 2,600th post office

As it opens its 2,600th post office today, postal service PostNL has published research reinforcing the view that local shops are still important in Dutch society, even in the age of online shopping. The study it commissioned from online research agency ISIZ and consultancy Stadspeil found 98% of 1,298 respondents stated that it was important to have shops close to where they live.

Earlier research from PostNL had suggested Dutch people preferred shopping online to buying items from physical retail stores, but the new study highlights the continuing importance of local shops for daily activities.

The biggest bugbear for Dutch people regarding brick-and-mortar retail is long waiting times – particularly for male shoppers.

PostNL said it was responding to the frequent complaint by adding more postal sales outlets and extending opening hours by opening more postal counters within supermarkets. The company started opening “shop-in-shop” branches eight years ago, and the new research suggests that 63% of people think it adds value to provide a post office within their supermarket.

PostNL, which has the largest retail network in the Netherlands, opened its 2,600th postal outlet this afternoon in a supermarket at Voorstraat 61-A in Utrecht.

Expanding its retail network via supermarkets underlined the postal service’s effort to move closer to consumers, it said.

With the rise of internet shopping, PostNL noted that more than half of Dutch people – 58% – currently use the post office to collect their online purchases.

Important social role

PostNL opening its 2,600th postal outlet today in Utrecht

For almost a quarter of those asked in the PostNL survey, the main reason for continuing to use local shops was the social contact involved.

PostNL said its research suggested men preferred to talk with shop staff about the news, while women tended to prefer talking about the weather, and that people in the south of the Netherlands were more likely to chat.

University of Amsterdam sociologist Dr Carolien Bouw said the PostNL research supported her own university’s findings. “Local shops play an important social role; they are where contact with others can be reinforced, simply while doing grocery shopping.”

While the importance of local post offices is often seen to be a more important issue in rural areas, the sociologist noted that in the PostNL research, it was city-dwellers that were more likely to be frequent users of local shops.

The study found more than a third of people in the country’s three main cities – Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague – visited local shops each day, compared to just 17% in the country’s three most rural areas.

“Cities continue to be very anonymous places, making a community atmosphere in local neighbourhoods extra important,” said Dr Bouw.