London Drugs was ready and waiting when the opportunity to take over one of Penticton’s postal outlets came along.
“London Drugs would always want to have a post office at every location, but it is only available when the opportunity rises,” said sales supervisor Corey Molyneaux.
Because Canada Post only allows a certain number of postal outlets per city, the large retailer was unable to add that to the list of services they offer at their Penticton location.
That is, until news broke in October 2011 that the Penticton Zellers, located in a mall across Main Street, was closing. Canadian retailer Loblaws is taking over the lease for the location, and is expected to open a Real Canadian Superstore there in 2013 after doing substantial renovations.
The closing of Zellers, however, also included the postal outlet it hosted and London Drugs was successful in it’s application to take over the outlet.
“I think there are about 13 locations with them, the closest being Westbank,” said Molyneaux. “They (London Drugs) would prefer we had post offices in every location where we can actually fit one.”
The new postal outlet will be located in the back of the store, near the pharmacy.
“They’ve already started construction on it. The post office itself is supposed to open May 8,” said Molyneaux, who isn’t sure when the Zeller’s postal outlet will close completly.
Molyneaux expects having the postal outlet will draw more visitors to the store.
“It should be good for us from everything they are projecting,” he said. Besides retraining some existing staff to handle postal duties, Molyneaux said there will be new hires.
“We are adding new staff to our location, that’s for sure,” he said.
That training, he said, will be handled on location by Canada Post, though that process hasn’t begun yet.
“Canada Post themselves do the training for it, but it’s actually not until quite a bit closer to the launch date,” said Molyneaux.