US parcel post service began on January 1, 1913 and was an instant success — in the first five days, 1,594 post offices reported handling more than four million packages. The new service gave farmers and small-town customers a cheap, uniform way to receive goods, ending their dependence on distant stores and private express companies.
The effect on mail-order retail was electric. Montgomery Ward, which had started with a one-page catalog in 1872, and Sears, Roebuck, which followed in 1893, saw catalog sales soar as rural free delivery plus parcel post turned the catalog into a national distribution channel. Farmers could even ship eggs and produce to customers by parcel post, creating new direct-from-farm trade.
Flat per-weight rates make shipping predictable to build on
A single rate schedule made shipping cost predictable for buyer and seller.
Rural free delivery carried parcels the last miles to farm gates.
Catalog houses gained a distribution channel with no storefronts.
Farmers gained a direct channel for eggs and produce to distant buyers.
A pricing standard can create a market: when distribution cost becomes predictable, businesses can design products and promises around it.
Parcel post volumes grew for decades, and mail-order houses built dedicated plants and packaging around the service. The system became the US Postal Service's package arm, later competing with FedEx and UPS — private networks that copied the flat-rate, distance-based logic parcel post had proven.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The sources
- Parcel Post: Delivery of Dreams Smithsonian Libraries · sil.si.edu