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Friday 9 October 2015

Daily Prompt: Connect the dots

Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.

Daily Prompt

They do not let me out a lot, so my main connection to life is the newspaper if I read it, and the local supermarket, where I now and again go hunting for food.

I scoured the news and found something which is vital to my existence. On page 25 there is the news from Lebern/Bucheggberg/Wasseramt (an area in my neighbourhood) showing a photo of the entrance to my supermarket, yes my supermarket. For the past two visits I was intrigued by the two ladder skeletons just before the entrance on the left. Were they going to redecorate, perhaps transform the metal cover to something golden? No, the secret has now been aired in the newspaper: planning permission will be given to erect a parcel machine at the entrance to the supermarket. 

Customers, like me, can use this service simultaneously when shopping said Oliver Flüeler (who?) -  a media spokesman of the Swiss Post. He finds it practical to pick up your parcels when shopping. You can even deposit a parcel that you wish to send and above all this wonder machine will accept all credit cards, due to the fact that payment in cash will not be possible. Oh wonder, no longer the tedious queues at the post office and we can even put the heavy parcels in our shopping trolley.  Of course, being Swiss, you cannot just pick up a parcel, no you have to register your identity, perhaps with your passport or blood group card,  then extras will be offered. What the extras are are not told in this article, but you will be able to use this facility 24 hours a day. There are no limits. You have forgotten to send a parcel to Aunt Dot for her birthday and it is midnight. Just drive to the supermarket, deposit your parcel, pay with the credit card the postage, and you can go back to bed without worry. Aunt Dot will receive the parcel on the next day.

Is this the first time that this has been done, an original post service in Langendorf, Kanton Solothurn, of all places. No, sorry to disappoint, but it seems there are 34 of these parcel stations dotted all over Switzerland, we are No. 35. There is also such  a parcel machine planned for the main railway station in Solothurn, Olten and Grenchen. Oh we lucky shoppers in the local supermarket have been given priority for this new development.

But now you are thinking, what about the post office in Langendorf itself. It is opposite the supermarket on the other side of the main road. Will it be closed due to lack of customers and parcels? It seems that there are no plans to change its purpose to an agency, or house service. The further existence of the post office in Langendorf is dependent on the customers that will still be visiting it. The future of the post office now lays in the hands of Frau Gerber, Frau Schmidt and Frau Pestalozzi, amongst others, so save your post office and ignore this new machine outside the supermarket.

But the future of this new system is not yet confirmed. The last paragraph of this news article to shake the world says that the process of permission for the parcel machine is still in the intermediate stages. It is hoped that the machine will be in permitted and in operation in 2015, but definitely by beginning 2016.

Just to add, I asked Mr. Swiss, as a Swiss citizen, what his opinion to this new development is.

“Was isch das für e Seich?” was his answer, which translated in a polite way would mean “what is that for rubbish”. I decided not to translate this statement in the exact words, substituting the word “rubbish” instead of the actual word applied.


It seems that our parcels will be brought by the post as always and we will not be filling our car with our parcels to deposit at the entrance of the supermarket in Langendorf before shopping. Yes, family Angloswiss is going to boycott the whole thing.

1 comment:

  1. I guess for some people it will be convenient, but I hope most will continue to support the local Post Office. It would be the same here......local Post Offices have been declining for years, so keeping open all existing ones is a priority over new-fangled tech like this. Oh, and I think I know the literal translation of Mr Swiss' comment!!! :-)

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