In the run-up to Christmas I was amazed at the number of people in the post-office sending off dozens of parcels with decidedly ebay-like address labels. I live in a small town and it must be empowering for people to make a bit of extra money by selling through the giant auction-monger. I also heard a lot of people in the post office queue’s tutting that people with lots of parcels were actually using the post office. The thing is, it’s these very people spending a few grand a year at the post office and causing queues that will help keep your local post offfice open. It’s clear that post offices might be losing out to courier services and other mail services, but the ebay phenomenon is keeping them busy. Long may it continue.