38. Junk Mail

Americans still receive about 41 pounds of junk mail each year, despite digital alternatives, filling mailboxes with offers disguised as bills or handwritten notes. This episode explores why direct mail persists: it generates responses for marketers and covers a key chunk of the U.S. Postal Service's revenue, a dynamic rooted in policy changes and low-cost incentives.

Postal Service Incentives Fuel Volume

In the late 1960s, views of government as inefficient bureaucracy targeted the Post Office Department. The 1970 Postal Reorganization Act transformed it into the U.S. Postal Service, a quasi-corporate entity required to fund itself without taxpayer money by the 1980s. With a universal delivery mandate, cutting costs was tough, but marginal delivery costs were low. Journalist Aaron Gordon explains the solution: boost mail volume through cheap rates for pre-sorted bulk mail, where senders handle sorting.

Direct mail, dating to 19th-century catalogs from Montgomery Ward and Sears, fit perfectly. Pre-sorted rates slashed costs, spurring growth. Junk mail rose from 25% of mail in 1972 to 32% in 1982 and 63% in 2019. Last year, USPS delivered 59 billion pieces—more than all other mail combined—generating $15 billion, or 20% of revenue. Postal workers call these batches "job security."