Very quickly you’ll need to sort out your mail in Edmonton. Knowing how you will receive your mail, where you can send mail, and how to receive parcels is an important service to understand.
Mail Delivery to Your Door
Some communities still get mail delivery to their door. This varies neighborhood by neighborhood. If you get mail delivery to your door – you will either need a slot in your door, or a mailbox near your front door.
Community Mailboxes
Most communities have been converted to community mailboxes. Generally, these are located within 2 blocks of your home. You’ll be assigned a number for the column at your set of boxes, and then an actual box number. You’ll either receive keys when you purchase your home to your mail box or you can request CanadaPost change the lock and issue you new keys.
In your community mail box you can mail letters (red door mail slot in one of the columns). You can also receive parcels that are mailed through Canada Post in yuur community mail box. You’ll receive a key in your mailbox, that will be labelled either A or B to correspond to the larger boxes at the bottom. Use the key to open the parcel box, remove your parcel, lock the box, and deposit the key into the red mail slot to be retrieved by Canada Post the next day.
Resources – Canada Post – Find Your Community Mailbox
Apartment & Condo Building Mailboxes
If you live in an apartment or condo building – you’ll also have a community mailbox (usually near front entrance). Sometimes the numbers correspond to your suite number, sometimes they are a different number. Keys are usually issued by the building landlord or condo corporation.
Parcel Delivery
If you order items or have items shipped to you, it will come to you a number of ways. Courier companies deliver to your door – sometimes they can leave parcels there, but other times they need someone home to sign for the parcel before it gets left.
The most common courier companies that are common here are: Amazon, Purolator, FedEx, UPS, DHL
Post Offices
If you need to mail a parcel, or need to receive a parcel that is too large for your mail box, then you may need to visit your community post office. Most community post offices in Edmonton are located inside Shopper’s Drug Mart stores in your neighborhood.
Redirect Your Mail in Edmonton
If you live in Canada prior to your Edmonton move, you can visit Canada Post to set up mail forwarding services.
I hope this helps you prepare for receiving your mail once you move to Edmonton.
