Black looks for ‘bogus mourner’
It’s last post for the holiday card
THEY were once a holiday staple with millions of us writing home to relatives and friends to say “wish you were here”.
But postcards showing a seaside view or a chocolate box village are being replaced by greetings sent on social media.
The trend has taken its toll on J Salmon – Britain’s oldest postcard publisher – with the announcement that it will cease trading.
It will publish its last range of cards and calendars in December.
Brothers Charles and Henry Salmon are joint managing directors of the firm in Sevenoaks, Kent, which has been in family hands since it was founded in 1880. Now no relatives want to take over the reins.
The brothers blame the increasing popularity of social media for the dramatic decline in traditional postcard sales in recent years.
Annual sales have dropped from 20 million, 25 years ago, to five million today.
Charles Salmon, 61, said: “Changing holiday patterns and new technology have had a huge effect on the business. People are also going for shorter breaks, so you’re back home before your postcards have arrived.”
The company, which began as a stationer and general printer, branched into publishing postcards in the 1890s.
Newsagent Barry Starling of Sheringham, Norfolk, said: “People now just use their mobile phones to send holiday greetings.” A GREY-HAIRED woman has been accused of being a fake mourner who makes off with buffet food.
Theresa Doyle, 65, is said to have attended wakes for the past 14 years. She cycles to funerals in bright clothes and changes into a black outfit from her basket.
Margaret Whitehead, whose daughter Catherine died at 42, became suspicious when Mrs Doyle claimed to have worked with the late woman as a waitress – a job she had not done.
One worshipper at the Holy Redeemer Church in Slough, Berks, claims she takes food away and keeps it in her freezer.
Father Noah Connolly said: “She is a Catholic and is convinced she needs to go to as many masses as possible.
“I can’t exactly say, ‘You can’t come’.”