Norway is putting itself in the lead of a widespread trend away from physical mail by closing all but six post offices in the entire country by the end of 2022. Only five stations in Oslo and one in the remote Arctic archipelago of Svalbard will escape the ax.
Customers seeking stamps and places to drop off mail will find themselves directed instead to convenience counters set up in stores, and will be able to retrieve packages from free-standing lockboxes, similar to Amazon Locker. About a thousand of those will be set up.
Norway was already down to only 31 post offices before the announcement, so only about 170 employees will be affected. The last straw that doomed the offices was a decision by DNB Bank, which had provided banking services in the post offices, to close that operation and instead put its ATMs and personnel in stores of the Norgesgruppen supermarket chain to reach many more people.
