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24 September 2014

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Talking Jersey

35p a lick

By Andrew Reid
As Jersey Post increases the price of local stamps to 35p, we ask what difference it will make? And who still posts letters locally?

It seems as if we’ve become fairly resigned to regular increases in the price of post within our island, but as one BBC Radio Jersey phone-in listener explained, why should it cost less to send a letter from Newquay to Dundee than it does from St. Helier to St. Saviour?

When email and text messaging first emerged it was thought it would spell the end for conventional mail, but fulfillment websites such as Amazon and Play.com, who rely on the postal service to send goods to their customers have ensured that companies like Jersey Post have a ready made market in the digital age. Whatever, there is no doubt there are still plenty of people in Jersey posting letters and parcels.

And here’s one for you to ponder . . . if you could buy and print out stamps online, would you? Would that encourage you to use the postal system more?

Do you like receiving letters but rarely bother to send one yourself?

What else can you buy for 35p?

A pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum
400 ml (ish) of unleaded petrol
A packet of wine gums
A tabloid newspaper
7/8 of a JEP
A pack of tissues

It’s unclear whether this price increase will have a real effect on Jersey Post’s business, or whether or not it is part of a larger strategy to deal with possible political regulations on the fulfillment industry that has served them so well.

But what about you - do you still send letters?
Have you ever sent a letter?
Can you find a better use of 35p than we did?

last updated: 03/11/06

Have Your Say

toasterything
actually really useful i only have 35p in my bank lol

Letter Sender
if a stamp tasted of chocolate when you licked the back of it then 35p a lick wouldnt be so bad but if your a chocoholic then by time you have licked the stamp alot if it tasted of chocolate then perhaps it would be of no use for an envelope then unless you put glue on back of it and I have often wondered what the Queens thoughts are about all those people out there that have licked the back of her head on a stamp (YUK)

SD
I think it is a disgrace the amout we have to pay - it is not as if we get a decent service. I think they should concentrate on improving there so called service before they put the price up.

Phil
Nick, Jersey and the Royal Mail used to not charge each other,the incoming mail balanced out the outgoing, but recent increases in volume due to the fulilment industry has caused this agreement to cease, and now we are charged heavily for the UK delivery leg. Without the inbalance we should see the price drop. But when did prices ever go down.

Emma
I have always thought that the postal service is one of the best bargains life has got to offer. To send a letter from one place to another for next to nothing is brilliant and people who disagree well deliever it yourself, but like they can be bothered. And lets be honest people would quite happily hoover 35 p up in a days house work so what is the big deal. Anyway post is great it is the way we symbolise social occasions such as birthdays and christmas. So I say post away, it is still only 35 p, the only thing I would much rather do with 35 p is give it to charity.

Nick
But Phil, surely its the volume of mail that the fufilment industry creates that stops the prices from going even higher?

Phil
Drop the local prices by either banning or raising the mail prices for the fulfillment sector. Its the increase in the fulfillment post to the UK that has put up the local and UK costs - guess who's a major player in the fulfillment industry? Hint.... they deliever the local mail.

Andy de C
If I could print out stamps I would for sure - although I don't fully understand why they need the price increase anyway... simply bizarre.

Chocks
Its probably cheaper to just hand deliver mail these days than put it in the post box. And in most cases you can send an email anyway.

Hannah
I too find it so frustrating that it costs more to send a letter locally here than it does to send one to Jersey from the UK.