MOOSOMIN — As the Canada Post strike lasted more than a month mark, businesses began feeling the effects. For some, the job action has been an inconvenience, forcing them to pivot and find alternate ways of ensuring that their needs—and those of customers—continue to be met. Others are finding the strike prompted a more profitable change they may have not otherwise realized.
“I certainly think it has affected them in a couple of ways,” said Moosomin Community Builders Alliance president Tyler Thorn of local businesses. “The first one that comes to mind is paying their bills and receiving their bills.”
In many cases, people have turned to electronic fund transfers, or sending a cheque via courier bag, Thorn explained.
Parcel delivery and courier services have noted an uptick in business, some more-so than others. Matthew Pister is the owner of Rural Route Package Pick-Up—an idea that was spawned from limited shipping options outside major centres. His Main Street business opened earlier this spring, and Pister says deliveries through November have doubled over October, and are poised to follow that trend in December.
“The one part that really shows what happens when they go on strike is there’s no backup to any of this,” Pister said. “Look at all those passport letters—there’s no backup. That just shows how fragile it really is.”
As of Dec. 1, around 185,000 printed passports are being held by Service Canada until the Canada Post strike is resolved.
“I think that after this, we’ll see probably a shift towards more like what I’m doing,” Pister said. “The problem is they can’t get the letter mail out.”
While Pister’s business initially began as serving customers with smart parcel lockers, the strike sped up plans to initiate a shipping service, further diversifying what he can offer.
“I was planning on rolling out a shipping service, and then this happens,” he said of the strike. “Then I’ve had a lot of people ask me, ‘Hey, can you ship?’ I’ve noticed an increase in shipping that I’m trying to do, too. So hopefully that creates a bit of a service for itself, too.”
Shopping local thrives
Thorn took an optimistic view on how the temporary lack of a postal service may actually increase support of local businesses.
“There is some upside for local stores in that this time of year, people might be more likely to shop in town, in the stores, knowing that they can get the product right away,” he said. “Particularly if it’s a Christmas gift, knowing they can get it and have it under the Christmas tree in a couple of weeks, whereas if they need to order it online, there’s zero guarantees right now. If you haven’t ordered it by now, it’s probably not coming by Christmas time.”
Kari Kosior, owner of Kari’s Kloset, used to walk down to the post office three to five times a day, depending on shipping volumes.
“This is a time of year that we actually don’t ship out as much as we do, only because people often are usually quite organized when it comes to online ordering, that they kind of plan to do it earlier to make sure it’s not going to get stuck in the mail during such a peak point of the season,” she explained. “It’s definitely had a bit of an impact, a very small impact right now, but if it were to continue longer into the New Year where people do have gift certificates and they’re going to start shopping for themselves again, we do enough business that we ship out that we’re missing getting to stay connected with our customers from far away.”
A saving grace came to Kosior through a recommendation of a fellow small business owner and customer from Yorkton. She told Kosior about an online shipping solution called freightcom.com, which has so far been a game changer for Kari’s Kloset. In fact, at this point, Kosior says she might not go back to Canada Post after the strike. A bonus is the reduced fees incurred when shipping parcels through the online shipping company—a value Kosior can then pass along to her customers.
As to the point Thorn made about increased foot traffic in local stores, Kosior agrees, adding that some of her customers travel quite a fair distance to shop in Moosomin.
“I’ve definitely become a destination store,” she said. “I have women that will drive as far as two hours out of their way to come here. It’s quite remarkable.”
These travellers typically make a day of the trip, supporting local restaurants and other businesses as well.
“We’re known for our downtown retail district, and so that’s really created Moosomin as a community, as a destination town to come shopping, to come spend the day in,” Kosior said, noting the out-of-town sales are roughly equal to local shopping volumes in her store.
It will be difficult to tell if businesses will return to Canada Post now that strike is over, or how firmly entrenched new patterns will be.
“There will be some business go away from Canada Post that probably isn’t coming back,” Thorn predicts. “Once businesses figure out other ways to collect their money, they’re not going to use the mail anymore.”
