Live in Wayfarer 3.1 is a new set of acceptance criteria! Please browse the information in this category with caution as it is in reference to the previous review guidelines. To learn more about the new criteria, see here: https://niantic.helpshift.com/a/wayfarer/
Post offices that are shops/in shops
Gazzas89-PGO
Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭✭✭
So I think I saw that free standing post offices were allowed as waypoints. But in the uk, free standing post offices are a rarity now, with arguably the only ones around being the sort offices. Most are now either a shop, or are in a shop so the question is would the still be acceptable. For example
1. This is a post office attached to a shop
2. This one is a shop itself
Would either of those be accepted or would the one attached to a shop be generic business or would both be generic
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Was hoping pictures would have been with the post haha
Personally I'd accept them - even in the 70's most village post offices in my area doubled as a village store.
I've seen them approved in America.
I don't see why that would be different from any other valid candidate in a shop... say a mural in a shop, or a fountain in a shop, or... well, I wouldn't consider being located in a public shop to be a reason to reject.
I don't see why this wouldn't be acceptable, so long as you are clear in the description that you are submitting the post office and not the shop AND if the shop itself isn't already a Wayspot.
Cheers for that, @NianticCasey-ING. I normally avoided voting on them because I was never sure how I should when they're in a shop
Actually, as a follow up to this, @NianticCasey-ING.
In the event that the post office is located at the back of the shop, would the main photo need to be of the post office sign in the outside of the shop or of the actual post office area inside the shop?
And would the location pin need to be on top of the post office area itself or at the front of the shop?
Good question @NicoSolheim-ING , hope to get some clarification :)
As do I. I have a post office in mind but it's located at the rear end of a shop, while its sign is outside on the building, within 20m of an existing wayspot, so I don't want to be wasting a nomination or getting accused of deliberately mislocating a potential wayspot
@NicoSolheim-ING normally I put it just on the edge of the building with mine, to show it's in there while still being able to get at easily from the street (both sides). Plus I think the general ruling is do long as its within a few meters of the thing, the shop with a post office in it would be the whole stop, so could easily put it in the shop to not get the 20m rule
In regards to the last bit, that's what I was thinking.
I'll have to try get good photos next I'm in the shop, though I suspect the security guard will be wondering what I'm up to 😂
@NicoSolheim-ING I would just take a pic of the post office sign outside, that way its obvious what you are submitting
5*, these post offices are fine in the UK.
Hi Everyone,
After reviewing the examples in the thread, we want to clarify that these would not be eligible Wayspots. Apologies for the confusion caused by the earlier reply.
As mentioned here, Standalone Post Offices are eligible and can be 5*ed. Post boxes and post offices part of other businesses are not eligible. We'll include a few examples in the help center soon but in the mean time, feel free to post your questions below.
Post boxes and post offices part of other businesses are not eligible.
I look forward to future clarification showing up in future Help clarifications. In the meantime, do you mean that to include something like a post office express? In my area, there are grocery stores that often have a fully functioning "express post office" that handles everything a normal post office does and still goes through the USPS system. Additionally, several of these are the only post office in that city and/or zip code. So, the city's only post office, but per your wording sounds as though they are ineligible?
@NIAPooja just to clarify, those examples I posted are pretty much the only way you fond a post office in britain now, freestanding ones dont exist to my knowledge, all that's really left are the sorting offices that you can collect parcels from that wrrent able to be delivered. While I'm not a fan of ones that are in other brand shops, I was thinking that post offices that are themselves the shop, they should have been allowed which was why I asked. So my clarification was more for a ruling in the uk given the differing circumstances from american post offices
Post offices in the UK are very rarely standalone, they get shut down because it's more cost effective to merge with a local shop. The people who use post office services are declining, so it doesnt make financial sense to have standalone post offices in most areas, but they're still culturally significant to many in the community. Please reconsider.
Hi @NIAPooja
This clarification can be quite restrictive for the UK.
Here in the UK, a lot of our post offices have been relocated to be inside other businesses, with only so many standalone post offices still existing. In many villages, the post office will either be in the village shop or in the village café. Also, as a side note, all post offices in the UK, be they standalone or inside another business, are run by the Royal Mail.
In regards to the postboxes, and this will cause more debating (apologies!), here in the UK, our postboxes are produced with a hand finish, and generally bear the Royal Cypher* of the monarch whose reign they were made/erected in. Allegedly we have over 800 different types of postbox in the UK, meaning they're not all produced with the exact same design, and some can tell the history of an area.
As these are obviously different to American post offices and postboxes, is there any chance of having a less American-centric criteria on this matter? Whilst I agree with a lot of the criteria, some of it is very much geared towards American players and can be very restrictive, or even confusing, for players in anywhere that isn't America.
*The Royal Cyphers are GR (George V), GviR (George VI), VR (Victoria), EviiR (Edward VII), EviiiR (Edward VIII), EiiR (Elizabeth II), and Anonymous (No cypher). GR, GviR, and EiiR are most the common of these Cyphers on Postboxes, whilst VR, EviiR, EviiiR, and anonymous rank among the rarer ones and are not seen as mass produced by the UK Wayfarer community in general.
Also, are you now saying postboxes arent allowed at all, or just postboxes in generic businesses? You may have seen postboxes cause A LOT of debate on here so would be great if that can be cleared up please :)
Man, NIA has just been destroying the UK Post Wasypots lately. First the historic post-boxes, now post offices. I'm sorry to everyone in there.
Yup. Like I said, it's gonna restrict us a lot now, especially in villages where the post office is definitely in a shop or café.
I was lucky that I found a standalone post office a couple of weeks ago in a village that hadn't been subbed yet.
I get that they probably don't want a wayspot in every shop/business that happens to be home to a small post office but given how rare the standalone ones are becoming in the UK, this just shows how America-centric the criteria is, and in my opinion, such a one size fits all criteria just isn't viable
Hey, this even hurts the US, if we're understanding this clarification the same way. Many of our earliest accepted (by Niantic, mind you) Wayspots are ones that are inside generic grocery stores but still act as the city's only post office.
My apologies and thank you for the clarification!
If it's listed on the official Post Office website branch finder then it's a Post Office as far as I'm concerned. The Post Office website has a branch finder that I link to whenever submitting a Post Office. This should remove any doubt in the mind of the reviewer.
UK branch finder: https://www.postoffice.co.uk/branch-finder
US branch finder: https://tools.usps.com/find-location.htm
@NicoSolheim-ING the anonymous cypher is actually the Scottish version of the EIIR as elizabeth is actually only the first one if Scotland, so rather than do EIIR Scotland does the royal mail cypher, so watch you dont accept that in the same vein as gr,grvi etc.
There's actual anonymous that don't have a crown, and there's what some people call anonymous but actually have a crown instead of EIIR. Love the actual anonymouses tho.
@mantolwen-ING oh, did not know there were proper anonymous ones as well, I've never seen it reviewed one, must be rarer than Edward ones
@NIAPooja - there are less than 300 Post Offices in the whole of the UK that are Crown Post Offices directly managed by Royal Mail and this is dropping month by month. Effectively almost all Post Offices in the UK are now franchises held by other companies and sellling other goods alongside the postal service. We're not just talking village Post Offices - the big city main branch Post Offices too. Canterbury's for example has been run by a stationers for at least 10 years. If the ruling is that only completely standalone Post Offices are eligible you are effectively saying Post Offices are not valid wayspots in the UK (and many other countries) is this your intention? Village and any small town Post Offices have sold other goods alongside the mail side for decades - people still consider them the local Post Office. Are Post Offices completely no longer in many countries?
Incredibly rare. I've only seen one myself in person and that's in my town
@NIAPooja @NianticCasey-ING this has not been further clarified, yet, on the forums or the help site.
This is an example of this city's only post office. It is a fully functional post office, it just happens to be a service counter inside a grocery store. Would a post office like this be considered eligible? Or was your clarification simply to exclude places of business like FedEx, UPS, and Kinkos?
Thanks! Hope to see this clarified, soon!