There has been talk lately about cutting back the US Postal Service's mail delivery to weekdays only, or even to only 3-4 days a week. That made me wonder how much of my mail do I actually read -- I figured it was a small fraction. So I decided to track my home snail mail for a month and see how what it looked like.Here are the results for the 161 pieces of mail we got (percentages are rounded, more or less):
Mail content
- Personal mail (cards, packages from family and friends): 3.5%
- Magazines: 5%
- Business mail (from companies we have a relationship with, i.e., credit card bills, insurance documents, etc): 11%
- Unsolicited advertising: 72%
- Other: 4% (mostly census notifications!)
- Non-resident: 4%
- Mail read: 20%
- Mail skimmed and tossed: 6%
- Mail thrown away unopened: 73%
But anyway, yeah, I think we can cut back the delivery service a few days a week.
3 comments:
nice figuring, Numbers.
Mom told me to read this post of yours as I would be interested, & she is very right, our Mom.
I go to the post office daily sending out orders, i have been hearing the death bell ringing for years. They are closing so many branches and burdening more jobs on to fewer employees. They have taken down almost all the neighborhood stand-alone mailboxes, they don't have people to go pick up the letters.. .even nature is bashing the USPS, the ashcloud has hindered international mails considerably.
The slow folding in of the USPS may force me to go to a much higher cost of shipping, carriers like Fed Ex/UPS-which makes me sad.
we get half our DNA from a stamp collecting Dad, and i have always been fascinated by the postal service. I really wanted to be a mailman, and Dad told me that I would be bored. I don't think that is true, even knowing what I know now.
While junk mail is a total environmental nightmare, it is revenue for the service.
my hope is that you are recycling that unopened mail.
ok! long missive over...
I get mail.
Don't worry. At my flat in Maryland, the junk mail makes up at least 99% of what gets stuffed into my tine mailbox. Fortunately, there is a garbage can right next to the mailboxes. Postmen? More like garbage delivery men.
Post a Comment