According to the Postal Service, the cost of the contract here is roughly comparable to the cost of residential delivery by letter carriers.

There is no residential postal delivery and residents must use post office boxes for mail delivery.

To make up the difference, FedEx Ground in Canada performs the business deliveries and residential deliveries.

There were three residential deliveries of seventy-five pounds each, two at fifty pounds and eleven, including yours, at twenty-five weight.

Door-to-door residential delivery is being curtailed in favor of curbside service and multi-address cluster boxes.

Curbline routes, however, account for only 21 percent of city residential possible deliveries.

"If carriers can't find ways to deliver more cost-effectively, it will double the cost of residential delivery, and the whole value proposition for E-commerce gets blown."

Most residents use post office boxes or private mail boxes, although residential delivery is becoming increasingly available.

Homes in the community did not have mailboxes or residential delivery, so residents picked up their mail at the post office, which used ZIP code 37351.

Despite the increase in volume, the Post Office continued twice-daily residential delivery through the first half of the twentieth century, as Angell recounts: