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Vocabulary:
Franchise: a business system where a shop owner pays money to a larger company for the right to offer their services. A well-known example of a franchise is MacDonald’s restaurants.
Enterprise: an enterprise is a business.
Provide: to provide is to give something that someone needs. For example, parents should provide their children with food and water.
Benefit: a benefit is a good thing, an advantage.
Outlet: an outlet is a shop
Answers:
New Zealand post offices have been closing around the country. The work of selling postage stamps and managing letters and parcels is being franchised to supermarkets, dairies and pharmacies. Under New Zealand law, New Zealand Post is a state-owned enterprise. That means that it is a business, but it is owned by the government. Because of this, it must have eight hundred and eighty service points around the country. A service point is a place where people can go to organise a letter or parcel.
Right now, 801 of those service points are already franchised. New Zealand Post plans to close its last 79 shops but will not say when.
New Zealand Post say that they need to do this to cut costs because people are sending fewer letters. It is also helpful for customers because they would get longer opening hours if the service is provided by a supermarket. Another possible benefit is that the number of franchise outlets could increase.
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