Dubbo's consumers and retailers have combined to produce a boom in parcels during the heights of the COVID-19 crisis, in a trend also seen across the country.
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Australia Post reports e-commerce growth at Dubbo was a massive 60.3 per cent up year on year for the April to July period.
Dubbo Post Office postal manager Virginia Brown said there had been growth with local small businesses sending more parcels during lockdown, and the people of Dubbo ordering online.
Food and liquor was the fastest growing category at Dubbo with 77 per cent growth year on year, she said.
Variety stores had the largest number of items purchased among all categories during April to July, accounting for one-third of all purchases in Dubbo.
For that category, year on year growth was 74.9 per cent, "which was driven predominantly by items purchased from department stores", Australia Post reports.
Fashion volume was slightly less than one-third of all purchases and recorded 54.3 per cent year on year growth in the city.
Ms Brown said there was a rise in consumers exercising "social responsibility".
"You see a lot of the local people supporting Australian businesses, so they're ordering not from overseas, they're ordering domestically, within the state and within the whole of Australia," she said.
"So that's really good to see the support for the small businesses, especially after the drought and the bushfires and COVID."
Ms Brown said Australia Post was supporting small businesses, through pricing and labels to save customers time, among other measures.
She said local staff had been working hard to meet the challenges of the pandemic.
"... I know the staff, talking to people, we feel like we've got a social responsibility to be here and help, support Australia," she said.
"Because it's uncertain times, and where it goes from there, and we're very grateful to have a job and have the opportunity that we can do something positive."
