Japan Post to install mailboxes in C&S stores

Japan Post, in a move aimed at boosting its parcel post business, has reached an agreement with C&S Co. to place mailboxes within the Circle K and Sunkus convenience stores that C&S operates.

This follows the postal service’s alliance with major convenience store operator Lawson Inc.

Mailboxes will be installed at 1,394 of C&S’s 6,000 stores in the four prefectures of Aichi, Gifu, Shizuoka and Mie, and mail will be accepted starting Monday 15th December. Lawson already has mailboxes in all of its 7,700 stores.

“Mailboxes are only the beginning. Our aim is on parcels,” a Japan Post executive says.

None of the major convenience store chains handle parcels, although they do accept packages to be shipped by private-sector home-delivery services.

Japan Post hopes that by having parcels accepted at convenience stores, which are open around the clock, it can win back customers that use the private-sector companies.