Post Office With No Stamps?

[EDDIE51]

This is prompted by another post
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/How-it-Works/Question1462489.html
mikey and I both noted that post offices seem to be out of stock of stamps recently.
Is this a plan to get rid of stamps and make us all take post to the Post Office to get a printed label or get our own franking machine?
I can see a motive for a privatised Post Office do this, it would save a fortune if they only had to collect mail from Post Offices and large company's with franking machines.

[Tuvok]

demand outstripping supply just now?

[Buenchico]

Do many people (apart, possibly, from small businesses) actually buy many stamps from a post office these days?

I get mine from Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, the Co-op, etc. It's only when I've got something unusual to post (which is probably paid for on a 'response licence' by the firm that I contract for anyway) that I visit a Post Office branch.

[EDDIE51]

It has been happening for most of this year at my post office. I just never thought there was any more to it than my local office not being too good at stock control. It was unheard of until privatisation. A post office with no stamps was like a butcher with no meat or a pub with no beer.

[bookbinder]

I understand that using emails has almost killed off posting letters, so the demand for stamps must have gone down.

[fiction-factory]

I'm pretty sure it's Royal Mail rather than the Post Office that collects from post boxes. I can't see them stopping using stamps - many people buy stamps in advance so they'd lose out on cash flow if you only needed to pay as you take an item to the post office and the use of the service would reduce even further

[Buenchico]

PS:
A post office without stamps doesn't concern me greatly. It's only when the pub next door to the post office follows their example with regard to beer that I'll be really concerned ;-)

[EDDIE51]

I can buy ordinary 1st and 2nd class stamps at my corner shop.But a lot of my eBay items can be sent with a large letter stamp, you can only get them at a post office as far as I know.

[Buenchico]

My local Co-op sells books of '1st Large' and '2nd Large' stamps, as well as ordinary 1st & 2nd class ones.

[Jackdaw33]

My worst experience was 4 years ago when I posted a sympathy card to the mother of a friend who had died. The only first class stamps they had were Shakespearian themed which depicted the skull scene from Hamlet. I thought this most inappropriate and asked for a plain one. I had to buy a book of 6 to get one. I complained to the PO and they sent me a book of 12 stamps as compensation.

[Jackdaw33]

...and I've still got 11 left!

[EDDIE51]

f f so does Royal Mail sell stamps to the Post Office? That may be a reason my PO often runs out of stamps.
Chris I will ask if other places sell stamps, I think branches of W H Smith do.

[Buenchico]

Remember that you can also print your own stamps (but you have to use them within 24 hours, so you can't pre-stock):
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/internet/how-print-postage-stamps-on-your-pc-3501189/

[fiction-factory]

>f f so does Royal Mail sell stamps to the Post Office? That may be a reason my PO often runs out of stamps.

I don't know the mechanics, eddie, but as stamps can be bought from lots of retail outlets including the Post Office, I think that these retail outlets buy them from Royal Mail at a discounted price and sell them at a profit to offset their costs

[SirOracle]

Stamps can be purchased at wholesalers e g Makro,at wholesale prices,which is where small traders acquire them.