To think that in this day and age, post offices should have stamp dispenser (vending) machines?

[JMSA]

I had to buy a postage stamp from the post office today. I don’t often send things, due to the cost of stamps, etc. But a close family friend died this week and I really wanted to send a sympathy card to her family.
The queue was pretty long; I waited alongside those who were picking up parcels, posting multiple packages, etc. All for one first-class stamp! There was no point in buying a whole book of stamps elsewhere, as they are SO expensive and it would take me years to get through them (or lose them!).
It’s madness that there isn’t a quicker and easier way to buy a single stamp.
AIBU?

That would be a great idea. Maybe a self service machine where you put your letter or parcel in, type the postcode and select postage and then it will print the right sticker for the size and weight. Mind you, in post lockers you just pay on your phone and put it in and for a small parcel it's about the same as a first class stamp....just a tiny bit slower.

Yes absolutely right OP! Would save so much time

YANBU but there are Post Offices where it's much quicker and easier.

My local PO sells all sorts of bits and bobs for the home and kitchen, so there's always an assistant at the allotted till for this and they sell stamps.

Many years ago there used to be stamp vending machines outside the post office. You can now buy postage online.

Where do you live? Big Post Offices in my city have had the equivalent of self service check outs for at least the last ten years!

You can buy stamps at lots of other places as well as the post office but I think vending machines would be helpful.

Ireland recently enough introduced online stamps. You buy the stamp you want and write the 9 digital code on the envelope.

Totally agree! I have often thought this when standing in a long line at the Post Office.

I was looking through an I-spy book from 1991, and post offices did indeed have stamp vending machines outside, I remember using them. One option was stamps to the value of 51p for 50p: back in the day, that was a whopping three second class stamps!

In the 1930s, there was an experimental phone box which combined a post box and stamp vending machine. They never caught on because the clunk of the machinery alarmed those inside using the telephone.

I think the problem is that post offices are really twitchy about proving to everyone that they are needed in a community. So much of it could be so much more self service. But they don’t want you to do it yourself, because then what justification is for them to exist. They want you to queue and demonstrate the service is valuable to the community.

Gosh, I live in a city and have never seen this! Many of our POs are in historic buildings and are seriously tiny. There would be absolutely no space for self-service.
Thanks for the replies, everyone. Glad it’s not just me who thinks so!

True. A bit like libraries, I suppose.

You can pay for postage and print the label on the Royal Mail website, they will even collect your letter the next day for 30p!

send.royalmail.com

This - and Tesco sell them in books of 4. But lets have a whole thread about complicated solutions to a problem that does not exist

It's not that simple, second class is usually not available in smaller stores. Neither the small waitrose not the mid-sized sainsburys that I shop at sell 2nd class, only 1st.

Can't you just buy it online or on an app? Where I live you can do this, you can also buy them via SMS and rather than print them, it texts you back a code which you just write on the envelope in place of a stamp. I don't do this because it's more expensive than the online version, but still.

Yes, let’s.
After all, you know what you can do if you don’t like it 😃

Fab - thank you!

They used to when I was a child in the 1960s and 70s.

self service has been a thing for years. My small town, according to this page, has 5 post offices with these machines, so I'd be very surprised if there wasn't one for you OP. And as others have said, you can buy postage online and for a very small amount they collect from your home, with the printed postage for you, so you don't even need to go to the post office or have a printer...

Our main post office in a county town had ticket dispensers 40 odd years ago both outside and in! It’s been done and if it’s not a thing now then I wonder what the reason is - although probably won’t have to wonder too hard!!!

Yes.in Luxembourg they had a self service thing where you weighed and sorted your own stamp. It was brilliant

Thanks. I followed the link to find branches with self-service machines, by putting in my postcode. But all it did was show me generic post office branches.

Did you filter for Post & Go?

Not in the uk, but every post office in our area has a self service machine. You can buy a stamp, a sheet of stamps, or send some simple packages. The thing you can’t do is pick your stamp design like you can at the counter.