Of the 142 stores closing, 29 are in Auckland and 22 are in Christchurch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe remaining network of 567 stores will still be significantly larger than any New Zealand supermarket or bank branch network,\u201d NZ Post general manager consumer Sarah Sandoval said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, 90% of Kiwis living in urban areas will still be within 4km of an NZ Post store.\u201d<\/p>\n
Age Concern New Zealand chief executive Karen Billings-Jensen told The Front Page<\/a> that it\u2019s important to think about those who will be affected the most.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think of those for whom transport and travel distance as both difficult because of maybe a disability or the cost. That\u2019s kind of one half and then the other half of those who may not be digitally literate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that the figures for those over 65 are 25% who are not digitally literate or online. Then for 75 plus, it increases to about 37%. For those ages 85 and over, it is even higher in terms of not being online.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other thing is connectivity. Not everyone is able to afford to be online, particularly on a very fixed budget.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know not everyone can afford a smartphone, so I guess it\u2019s the affordability issue of needing to be online,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n In an ever-evolving digital age, Billings-Jensen said that there\u2019s a challenge to make sure we don\u2019t leave people behind.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have amazing groups that invest in supporting digital literacy. That\u2019s one step. Dealing with the cost is another matter.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re saying everything is online, should provision of internet be seen as an essential service … So we then need to say, actually, when we talk about key things that you need to pay, rates, electricity – does connectivity need to be factored in as something that\u2019s essential?\u201d <\/p>\n Listen to the full episode<\/a> to hear more about:<\/p>\n Significance for older peopleCommunity support and trainingSocial and emotional effects Possible policy changes.<\/p>\n The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime\/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.<\/p>\n You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of the 142 stores closing, 29 are in Auckland and 22 are in Christchurch. \u201cThe remaining network of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10666,28164,2082,71,1668,807,111,43,139,69,142984,24808,28630,5502,3117,17145,82742,1321,653,223,1961,379],"class_list":["post-259502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-cuts","tag-fears","tag-for","tag-from","tag-front","tag-kiwis","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offline","tag-older","tag-page","tag-partner","tag-post","tag-raising","tag-removing","tag-services","tag-stores","tag-the","tag-this","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}