It is definitely a family affair for Needham Market's Post Office, run by three generations of the same family.
Tony and Lesley Moore took over the business 21 years ago, with their son Stephen coming aboard 19 years ago along with his wife Chloe, and grandson Callum joining a year ago.
The family, who also run a coffee and paint your own pottery shop on the high street, has loved the opportunity to work together.
Lesley said: “It’s lovely working with family. Of course, there’s a few arguments, but we are a family that will argue passionately and then five minutes later it is all forgotten, and we move on!
“Every Thursday Callum and I go for lunch. It’s a little tradition we started together when he went to college. We both said we missed having that time together so now we work together and have our lunches.
“And we treat our staff as family too. We’re very lucky our staff stay around for quite a long time because we treat them well and care about them.”
The family has seen a lot in the 21 years they have been running the post office, but their love for Needham Market remains stronger than ever.
Lesley said: “Needham Market is fantastic. We’ve got lots of loyal customers. A lot of people on the high street are not having such a good time so we are lucky to still have a post office in the high street with so many closing down.
“Our customers love having a chat or asking for some advice – that’s what we’re here for. Sometimes we are the only people they see.”
The Post Office has been in the news a lot recently, with the Horizon scandal resulting in hundreds of sub-postmasters being wrongly convicted for theft and false accounting because of faulty IT software.
Lesley admits that the scandal involving the big corporation has been difficult for the family-run post office.
She said: “It’s been hard. In general, customers have been really supportive but online a lot of people were saying to boycott the post office. But it’s not us – it’s Post Office Ltd and hopefully they won’t get away with it. Most post offices are individually owned and it’s our living so we don’t want people to boycott us at all.”
Big changes have taken place in the business over the past 20 years, with the retrofitting of the shop, the extension of the range of goods, and changing the layout.
And while Tony and Leslie have cut back their hours, there’s no sign of the family slowing down soon.
She said: “I think we’re going to expand more gifts within the shop area. We’ve changed the layout of the shop already to make it more open and inviting.
"I think we just want to make sure we stay on the high street. We’ve listened to what our customers ask and we’ll try and deliver!”
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