Door open for Post Shop access

THE Armstrong Street South entrance to the Ballarat Post Shop in Central Square is again open for public use.

The door between the post office boxes area and the shop has been closed for many years, but manager Jodi Stritthof decided it warranted being reopened after taking over the business in April last year.

Ms Stritthof said she ran a month-long trial before making the reopening permanent, and the response has been positive.

“Mainly it was our PO box holders (using the door) first off, but now we’ve found a lot more customers coming through from surrounding businesses,” she said.

Ms Stritthof said the motivation for the move was twofold: to increase foot traffic through the Post Shop, and to make things easier for post office box holders.

“It must have been so frustrating for them to get a card out of their box to pick up a parcel,” she said.

“Then they had to walk out, they had to walk all the way around, and then they had to come back in – to pick up a parcel.”

Ms Stritthof said knowledge of the unlocked door was spreading, and feedback on the move had been “excellent.”

“People are just so happy that we’ve opened it; it’s making their life easier,” she said.

Ms Stritthof said Post Shop customers and others were also using the door as a walk-through into Central Square proper.

“You can walk through from Armstrong Street (South), straight through into the shopping centre,” she said.

Ms Stritthof said she was comfortable with people using the entrance as a walk-through to the centre because it would help build her own business.

“It’s all raising awareness that we’re here, that we’re a good little post office,” she said.

Ms Stritthof said she knew the door had been open “a long, long time ago” but had been unable to find out when it was permanently locked.

“The feedback I got was that it was because of theft – people pinching things from other stores and then running through our store to get a quick escape out of the centre,” she said.

Ms Stritthof said she had cleared the reopening with Australia Post security and had been given the go-ahead.

The door is open during the trading hours of the Post Shop, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.