Local novelty stamp business says revenue down 85 per cent due to Canada Post strike

As the Canada Post strike enters its second week, local businesses who rely on the service are feeling the impact.

For F.v.H. Stamps, Actions and Supplies in Gastown, which uses the federal postal service to send and receive mail and packages, the strike has been crippling.

“We are unable to mail anything right now, which means 85 per cent of weekly revenue hasn’t been there for the last two weeks,” said owner Frank Von Hausen.

“We will see what happens next week.”

The store sells collectible stamps, some over 100 years old.

“We have clients coast-to-coast across Canada, quite a number in the States, and a handful overseas that buy from us as well,” he said. “Materials that we have sold in our auction for the last two weeks, we have them stockpiled here, which they will eventually get mailed.”

Canada Post says mail and parcels are not being processed or delivered for the duration of the national strike. The postal service says it has seen a shortage of more than eight million parcels amid the ongoing strike that has effectively shut down the postal system for nine days compared with the same period in 2023.

The Crown corporation says it lost over $300 million before taxes in the third quarter of this year, citing a decline in parcel deliveries in the highly competitive e-commerce delivery market.

If the post strike doesn’t wrap up by next week, Von Hausen says he may be forced to switch to a private carrier, despite his loyalty to Canada Post.

“It would be a lot more expensive to use a carrier,” he said.

“We use special stamps to mail our things out, which our clients appreciate, which is something unusual instead of just metered postage, which is no good at all for collection purposes.”

With files from The Canadian Press.