It was one of many post-apocalyptic tales Mark Oliver has written.

Only this time, the customer service employee at Shoppers Drug Mart hit the send button.

Oliver, a full-time employee with the Canadian pharmacy chain and a part-time fiction author, told the Star he was the one who sent the sci-fi response — since gone viral in the digital realm — to an email from Andrew Gardner, who had been receiving a stranger’s mail at his Toronto home.

Gardner, when inquiring if he could be removed from Shoppers’ mailing list, whimsically wondered if the “Matthew” whom Shoppers wanted to mail flyers to was a previous resident — or possibly from the future.

What he got back was a deadpan response purportedly from a dystopic future — written, unbeknownst to the pharmacy chain, by Oliver.

Shoppers says Oliver won’t face any repercussions over his email. While not for everyone, it left a more satisfied customer and gives the chain “a few more product and campaign ideas for the future.”

Gardner’s initial email to Shoppers, which he posted online, ponders who this stranger, the object of mail past or future, might be.

Naturally, I can draw one of two conclusions from this: 1) that Matthew is a previous resident of this address …

Or 2), and I may be going out on a limb here, Matthew is a future resident of this address, and seemingly against the laws of causation, your computer system has this information and prematurely mailed an advertisement to him before he’s actually lived here.

Oliver’s response was far from what Gardner expected — and the first time Oliver says he’s ever strayed from the company’s boilerplate reply.

Thank you for writing us. We apologize if you have been receiving mail from Shoppers Drug Mart that was addressed to another customer. Unfortunately, we cannot comment on any research projects that we may currently be conducting. However, we would appreciate it if you could provide us with some additional information that would help us determine when the mailer you received was sent. Could you please let us know if it contained any of the following advertisements?

1) Now at Shoppers Drug Mart: Everexis

Cure any disease instantly with Everexis! Great for headaches, colds, cancer and more! With no known side effects, nothing can possibly go wrong!

2) 20X The Points on Meat Products

Got the Everexis munchies? Fill your strange and unspeakable hunger and get 20X The Points!

3) 20% Off Everexis Antidote

Everexis left you slow, lumbering, and quick to anger? Take the Everexis antidote. It hasn’t been fully tested, but it certainly can’t make things any worse!

4) Hide in a Shoppers Drug Mart Refugee Shelter

With over 1,200 locations still standing across Canada, Shoppers Drug Mart is the ideal place to hold up and hide from the hoard. Ration Nativa Cheese Puffs and Life Brand Vitamins while you wait for rescue! Blood samples will be required for admittance.

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5) Wheat, Glorious Wheat

Exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart! Rebuild society with wheat, a traditional nonsynthetic foodstuff from the before-times. Act fast, as quantities are extremely limited.

Gardner was shocked and responded with a single emoticon, :o

“(The email) read like customer service speak,” Gardner said. “I actually closed it and put it aside. I looked it again and I said, ‘Oh my god, this is hilarious.’ ”

Oliver says his email had nothing to do with being a disgruntled employee — he’s worked happily for the chain for four years. He trains the email team and has written many of the template responses used by Shoppers. His explanation was simple:

“First, I thought it would be one person reading a joke and a little bit delighted to have it. I didn’t expect to be about 30,000 people reading a joke. And the other thing is I’m leaving the country in two months so I thought the consequences wouldn’t be too bad.”

Shoppers spokeswoman Tammy Smitham was initially unsure if one of their employees actually sent the email but later took the exchange in stride.

“While (Oliver’s) response may not have appealed to everyone, we are glad that Andrew took it in the same lighthearted way in which it was crafted. At the end of the day Andrew is a more satisfied customer (which makes us happy),” Smitham said.

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