Among them are seven in the Dunedin community alone.
Following a review, the government has approved changes to the deed of understanding between the Crown and NZ Post, which will allow NZ Post to reduce the number of its retail service points around the country.
NZ Post has already started engaging with the nine Otago businesses which provide postal services: Brighton Store, Musselburgh Pharmacy, Prince Albert Rd Dairy, Caversham Pharmacy, Maori Hill Dairy, Brockville Four Square Supermarket, Kaikorai Valley Night ’n Day, Albert Town Tavern and Weston Four Square Supermarket.
The services are expected to be cut early next year.
The owner of Brighton Dairy, who declined to be named, said she was surprised and "a bit annoyed" to be on the list because the community had been growing over the past two decades.
She said she had been at the store for 22 years and the NZ Post service was still used by many customers — particularly for parcels — because the next nearest NZ Post service was about 10km away, in Green Island.
The community had a lot of elderly residents, but it also had a growing number of younger residents who had online shopping parcels delivered to the store for collection.
"I’m a bit annoyed. This is just another way the government is trying to save money," she said.
The deed of understanding was last reviewed in 2013, when NZ Post delivered about 800 million letters, but that has fallen to 160 million letters, and it is expected to continue declining.
NZ Post consumer general manager Sarah Sandoval said the changes in the deed would allow NZ Post to adapt as necessary, to meet the changing communication needs of New Zealanders and give it flexibility to make operational changes in the face of declining mail volumes.
Ultimately, the changes aimed to ensure NZ Post continued to provide a commercially sustainable mail service.
Previously, NZ Post was required to maintain a minimum of 880 retail service points around New Zealand — a number which had not changed since 1989.
Ms Sandoval said the changes would allow NZ Post to reshape its retail network to make sure it had the right number of stores in the right places.
"We currently have a large retail network, with duplication of services in many areas.
"We’ve looked at data which tells us how customers are currently choosing to engage with NZ Post, and identified nine stores across Otago we don’t expect to be part of this future network," Ms Sandoval said.
Despite the proposed cuts, NZ Post services would remain accessible to Otago communities, she said.
"To put this in perspective, on average, these stores have another NZ Post store less than 3.5km away," Ms Sandoval said.
"The majority of stores have another NZ Post store within 1.7km."
She said NZ Post was not initiating any changes to its rural retail network at this stage.
Taieri Labour MP Ingrid Leary said she would not be surprised if some members of the community went "postal" over the announcement.
She considered the Brighton NZ Post centre to be part of the rural retail network and was concerned about its inclusion.
"I’ve always supported fair access to services, regional equity and affordable, reliable public services — especially in rural areas.
"NZ Post seems to be prioritising dividends and returns to the government over its service obligations to customers, particularly vulnerable groups such as rural seniors, who often have limited access to digital alternatives."
Ms Sandoval said more information on when centres would close would be released early next year.
