You can do a variety of interactions at a post office. So you need to be open to a wider variety and look beyond the window.
It’s not about being social at the counter window but the facilitating of interactions that can happen.
The wayfarer team have considered all this and said they are eligible for consideration.
Sure. Agree with that. After that it is a judgement call. And I see such post “office” windows as generic and replaceable business transaction places.
That’s not a window, it’s the entrance to the post office. To be fair, I would not categorically see (German) post offices as eligible if they weren’t explicitly stated to be eligible. But when I was little I lived in a small village where the post office was a cornerstone of the community, since it was where we’d constantly go to stay connected to the world, but also where you could meet others from the village and chat. Plus, the post office served as an info center for all kinds of things since they were able to point you to any place in the village, find the address of any business, etc.
Indeed. Not just a window. I rememered the pic wrong. But still just a shop. Noone to meet there. A manned postbox with a kiosk style shop.
I agree that real post offices used to be and some still are social hubs.
The one above is not.
The problem at hand is that Wayfarer has (to my knowledge) never really clarified why they see post offices as great places to be social with others. If it is simply for the reason that one can go to send letters to stay in touch with loved ones elsewhere then every post office should be eligible, since that’s one thing you can actually do at every post office. But then they shouldn’t reject the appeal for being a “generic post office”. So clearly they (or at least this specific appeal reviewer) are judging post offices on different merits. I feel like a criteria clarification would be useful for post offices.
Edit: If anyone is interested, I think this article is a very nice write up on the importance of post offices for social life, even those that look “generic”
I think it is.a judgement call. Like other generic businesses.
I stepped back from the thread because I could only give a UK perspective where if it has a “Post Office” logo on it even if its a counter inside a shop it gets accepted.
This has lead to people nominating none post office shops that deal with some aspects such as parcel pick up / drop off to be nominated or the “Royal Mail” (different company) letter sorting office to be nominated which IMO should be rejected.
A clarification would be great but I wouldn’t expect it. I think some would take this and squeeze it to fit there narrative. “People can send parcels to keep in touch so all parcel drop off locations (shops / lockers) should be acceptable”.
I like a mixture in the waypoints so sometimes you have to accept that “These ones = Yes / Similar = No”.
Note: This is not a judgement on the OP’s nomination.
In an official clarification they could note that they only see regular post offices as eligible though
Big thanks to all of you for your interest and giving your thoughts and experiences!! I am quite impressed by the forum (esp. when I stopped checking every minute after two days of silence😅).
I see that post offices are seen and treated different around the globe. Maybe it would be a good idea if Wayfarer could give us more guidance on this. Or if we could link similar threads here for further reviewers and submissions.
Well, the thing is there are different types of post offices. They used to be hubs of society. There is even a town in the US named after their first post master. That important they once where.
Some today have cafes in them, some are just drop-off places, others admin places with a wee shop or seperate windowed sections in shops.
It is therefore not that simple.
For me the social aspect has to be right there. The handing over of a letter to a loved one to the post office clerk is not a social interaction, it is an admin task. The social aspect is writing and then reading the letter. The letter itself, not the post office desk is the “social object”.
But that does not mean no post office is a place to socialize at. The ones in my area tend to be worthy of exploration (the building) or are generic admin places.
Also from Germany.
I was thinking about going on a Post Office nomination frenzy here. After reading this through with even the appeals not having a good chance of success, I’ll probably will refrain on that or put that idea at the end of my nomination queue. It seems like the post offices have a lower successrate than Streetname-sign descriptions.