Australia Post will deliver millions of parcels across the country this holiday season, but the mail carrier has also launched a ‘pick-me-up’ service of an entirely different nature.
Throughout October and November, Australia Post will be delivering free coffee to small business owners down the East Coast of Australia via its first-ever mobile coffee van.
The coffee is being provided by Merlo Coffee, a Queensland-based family business and Australia Post customer, and the aptly named ‘pick-me-up’ van kicked off its two-month journey last week in the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin, before making its way through multiple Melbourne suburbs.
This week it will head to Victorian regional hot spots Geelong and Bendigo, before heading north and visiting regional and metro locations in New South Wales and Queensland.
The full list of pitstops and times is available here.
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday quickly approaching, and Christmas shopping likely already underway, Australia Post says it is hoping the offer of free caffeine will bolster busy small business owners.
“We know very well how overwhelming peak season can be for businesses because we go through it too,” said Aimee Dixon, Australia Post’s general manager of enterprise brand and retail marketing.
“We really wanted to find five minutes with our customers where we can all have a quick break. It’s nice to take a breather before getting right back into it,” she added in an article about the free coffee van.
“Australia has so many incredible businesses that have held up our economy and our e-commerce industry over the last year. This is one small way of saying ‘we see you and thank you’.”
However, the offer comes after serious concerns about the future of many licensed post offices across the country, and price increases in 2023 for businesses that send parcels via the national mail carrier.
And a free cup of Joe might not be much consolation for the scores of small businesses across the country staring down own of the toughest retail seasons in years, or what Deloitte has recently labelled an “economic horror show”.
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Eloise is an experienced business journalist and editor, who has held senior editorial roles at SmartCompany since 2014. Prior to joining SmartCompany, Eloise was news editor at Books+Publishing, the trade press for the Australian book industry. Eloise has degrees in media and communications, marketing and business management, and political science. You can follow her on LinkedIn, and Twitter at @ellykeating.
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