// Shoppers have been urged to hit the high street to avoid delivery disruption
// Retailers bring forward “last orders” ahead of Royal Mail industrial action this month
Last-minute Christmas shoppers have been urged to hit the high street to avoid disappointment ahead of this week’s Royal Mail postal strikes.
In preparation for the walk out, many retailers have brought forward “last order” dates for online shoppers.
Bookseller Waterstones’ cut-off date is now two days earlier on 19 December and it warned customers to “expect some delay to quoted delivery times”.
M&S is pushing its click-and-collect service, which requires no minimum spend, as it warns some online orders “may take a little longer to arrive”.
Meanwhile, toy retailer The Entertainer was forced to temporarily drop its next-day service and extend its normal delivery window due to postal delays.
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The retailer’s executive chairman Gary Grant told The Guardian: “We’ve had to extend our delivery promise from three to five days out to five to seven.
“All the couriers are in overload because although you can still give packets and parcels to Royal Mail you can’t rely on it to deliver them.
“We had to stop offering express delivery because we can’t guarantee it.
“Every day lots and lots of boxes are being delivered but not in a timely way.”
About 100,000 Royal Mail postal workers are set to walk out on 14, 15, 23 and 24 December in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
Last week, electrical retailer Curry’s dropped the delivery provider over the festive period to minimise disruption from the strikes.
The industrial action has placed further pressure onto other courier companies.
Both DPD and Evri, formerly Hermes, have apologised for delays due to higher than usual parcel volumes.
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