IS CANADA POST MAKING ITSELF IRRELEVANT?

This time of year our home used to be festooned with greeting cards. On shelves and the mantel, and hanging from the slats of California shutters. Some had glitter that came off on my fingers, but that was part of the magic.

I’d save the ones with messages I loved, the others went into a bin for arts and crafts projects for our sons when they were young.

I don’t need to do that any longer. The number of cards we receive – and send – has dropped. Drastically.

Not just Christmas and New Year’s greeting cards, but birthday or anniversary cards, or any special occasion cards for that matter. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2020 that Hallmark was to revamp operations as greeting cards fade. “Century-old company plans to cut costs and refocus on digital efforts,” wrote Sharon Terlep. “Blame the emoji. Millennials and Gen Z just aren’t sending greeting cards, and even their parents have moved to digital salutations.”

Animated e-cards come with all the jingle bells and whistles. They can be personalized and come with the option to send a card back right away. So why would anyone bother to go to a store to buy cards, write a message in each, and then go mail them?

Specially when the rising cost of mailing is, in fact, the second deterrent. According to a recent press release from Canada Post, Canadian letter mail volumes have declined by 60 per cent over the last two decades, from 5.5 billion letters in 2006 to 2.2 billion in 2023. In 2006, Canadian households received an average of seven letters per week; today, it’s two per week. During that time, the number of addresses served has increased by more than 3 million, from 14.3 million in 2006 to 17.4 million in 2023, and that number continues to grow.

And so, “the price of a domestic stamp purchased in a booklet, coil or pane will rise 25 cents from 99 cents to $1.24 per stamp in a move to better align with rising cost of providing the service. For a domestic letter (30 grams or less), the price of a single stamp would increase from $1.15 to $1.44.  Pending regulatory approval, the new rates will take effect January 13, 2025.”

I’m not an economist, but this boggles the mind. You grumble about lower sales because of high prices and then raise them some more? How is this going to change the behaviour patterns of people not using snail mail due to rising costs? Will those turning away turn back?

I’m not advocating a boycott Canada Post movement like the recent boycott of a grocery chain that gathered thousands of people protesting the increase in price of groceries.

I don’t have to. It’s already happening. Just that the good people at Canada Post are not paying attention to the writing on the wall. Or to the striking workers. And there go our treasured ‘Hallmark moments’.

Merry Christmas!

Shagorika Easwar