Rye’s Post Office has moved inside Jempsons store, but the proposed longer opening hours are not yet in place – and the temporary Post Office itself (above) may move to a slightly different position within the store.
Apparently the Post Office will eventually be close to a new main entrance to the store (on the left of the picture above), which will be nearer to the road than the existing entrance, and the kiosk will be nearby. Kiosk staff will apparently be trained to deliver Post Office services during the longer opening hours.
At the same time the delicatessen area will be moving into the brand new front area of the store, and allegedly all will be in place by December 15. The tills may also be re-arranged nearer the new entrance.
Work on rearranging and rebuilding the store started around Easter and, as work progressed, customers had to get used to repeated changes of what was on what shelving where.
We understand most of the grocery area and shelving is now in its final position. New refrigeration units have also been introduced as the old ones seemed to break down fairly often leaving empty shelves and pools of water to be mopped up.
It is possible that when the delicatessen area is in place that there may be some further fine tuning.
Hopefully the new entrance will have two sets of doors forming an air lock (as many supermarkets have) as customers and staff at the tills were exposed to very wintry weather this week.
The Post Office has said in its reply to the consultation over the move that the outlet will have longer opening hours, and that customers will be able to transact the same wide range of products and services as currently.
When discussing the move the Town Council wanted to know whether the products and services would be available during all the longer opening hours, but that question was not answered.
In the meantime the Post Office is still work in progress. It did not open at 6am on Monday morning and, when it did open at 8:30am, the staff said they could not find things so I was unable to arrange a recorded delivery for my letter. But the Post Office’s move only took place on Saturday and so it may take a few days to settle in.
Photos: Kenneth Bird
Will we still be charged the £1.00 surcharge for parking during the day if we only want to use the Post Office. If so has the Post Office agreed to this extra charge being made to its customers?