Mr Roberts thinks that new entrants, such as online grocers who visit consumers' homes each week to drop off orange juice and toilet paper, could develop more efficient ways to deliver parcels and packages than either the traditional postal firms or the specialist express operators.

ECONOMIST: Europe��s last post

Orange peels and scraps of paper littered the hallway.

NEWYORKER: Waiting

Kimberly-Clark's local brands sell apricot-colored paper in the U.K., green in Poland, "sunny orange" in Switzerland and "natural pebble" in Germany, the company says.

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