Today I am due to receive a new mailbox. I bought it from Amazon.
Amazon is not the largest employer in the U.S.. That honor falls to Walmart, with approximately 1.6 million U.S. employees. Walmart. It’s been the largest retailer in the U.S. since 1990. The top ten retailers as of 2025 (by revenues) are:
1. Walmart – $534 billion, with 5,300+ locations.
2. Amazon – $387 billion, with 600+ physical stores.
3. Costco – with 629 stores.
4. The Kroger Co. – with over 2,700 stores
5. Home Depot – either 2,021 stores.
6. CVS Health – operating 9,135 retail pharmacies.
7. Walgreens – with 8,600+ U.S. pharmacies.
8. Target – operating approximately 1,950 stores.
9. Lowe’s – with 1,746 stores.
10. Albertsons – operating approximately 2,271 stores.
But Amazon is a close second in employees to Walmart with approximately 1.5 million U.S. employees. That landscape does seem to be changing as Amazon announces big efficiency staff reductions while Walmart has committed to 3 years of employment stability. Just to put those behemoths into perspective, the U.S. Federal Government employs approximately 2+ million civilian employees…or did until the government shut down a month ago…Other Major Employers in the U.S. are the U.S. Postal Service (~500,000+), Home Depot (~500,000), UPS (~400,000+), Kroger (~400,000+), Target (~400,000+), and FedEx (~400,000+).
It’s interesting to consider these numbers because when I was born, the expression that told the U.S. economic tale was “As goes General Motors, so goes the Nation.” If anyone doubts that the U.S. is a consumer-driven economy, just consider the above-quoted employment stats. If they ain’t selling it in a brick and mortar store, they’re delivering it to your door.
The U.S. economy became consumer-driven in two major waves. The 1920s brought the first consumer revolution. Remember “a chicken in every pot”? The United States was the first nation in the world where consumer spending was driving economic growth. The world followed suit. The notion of human beings as consumers first took shape before World War I, but became commonplace in America in the 1920s. Rising incomes among the urban working class and innovations in technology drove the consumer revolution. Consumer debt more than doubled between 1920 and 1930, with over half of the nation’s automobiles sold on credit by the end of the decade. Mass production made consumer goods affordable. Aggressive advertising techniques emerged. “Buy now, pay later” became widespread. Then, Post-World War II brought the full transformation to consumerism. Wartime production had helped pull America’s economy out of depression, and from the late 1940s on, young adults saw a remarkable rise in their spending power . This era solidified consumer spending as the primary economic driver.
Today. personal consumption expenditures constitute two thirds of total GDP, with PCE growing from 59% in 1968 to 68% in 2022. So, while the shift began in the 1920s, it was truly cemented in the post-WWII era of the late 1940s-1950s and seems here to stay. But what does that all have to do with the mail?
Here’s what we know about consumer purchases/packages in mail services…in 2024, the Postal Service’s shipping and package volume was 7.3 billion pieces , while in FY 2024, the Postal Service delivered 112 billion pieces of mail total. This means packages represent about 6.5% of total mail volume of USPS. However, the revenue impact is much larger. Packages generate approximately 28% of total USPS revenue despite representing only 7.5% of mail pieces. The United States Postal Service delivers approximately 23.8 million packages per day as of 2024, with capacity expanding to 77 million packages daily during peak holiday season. The three largest USPS segments are First-Class Mail (letters, bills, personal correspondence), Marketing Mail – 57.5 billion pieces in 2024 (bulk advertising/junk mail), and only then, shipping and packages. The vast majority of mail volume (about 93%) is still traditional mail – letters, bills, marketing materials, and periodicals – but packages are far more profitable per piece.
Those USPS figures only include the United States Postal Service – they don’t include FedEx, UPS, Amazon Logistics, or other private carriers. The full picture of U.S. package delivery is that USPS processes 68% more packages daily than UPS and 112% more than FedEx, handling more packages than UPS and FedEx combined. Nevertheless, if we’re talking about the entire U.S. mail and package delivery market, we’d need to add the major private carriers including UPS (United Parcel Service), FedEx, Amazon Logistics (their own delivery network), DHL, and several regional carriers. The private carriers (especially UPS and FedEx) handle a massive volume of packages, particularly business-to-business shipments, heavy/oversized packages, expedited/time-critical deliveries and international shipping. Amazon has actually built its own extensive delivery network that now handles a significant portion of its own deliveries with lots of unique “last mile” modes like drones and “golf carts”.
The history of the U.S. Postal Service began in the Colonial Era (1600s-1775). The first official notice of mail service in the colonies was in Boston, where the British Crown granted a monopoly to operate colonial mail. Famously, in 1753, Benjamin Franklin was appointed Deputy Postmaster General for the colonies. He improved efficiency and expanded routes significantly. In 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the Constitutional Post (later U.S. Post Office) and Franklin became the first Postmaster General. The postal system was seen as crucial for communication and unity among the colonies. Mail service expanded westward with the nation. The first adhesive postage stamps issued (5¢ Franklin, 10¢ Washington) in 1847. In 1860-1861 the Pony Express (privately run, short-lived but legendary) made its mark. Post offices became social centers in frontier towns. In 1918 Airmail service began. Mail volume exploded with population growth. In 1963 they introduced the ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan). But by the 1970s, the Post Office Department faced mounting financial problems. It was given more operational independence but still government-owned and yet required to be self-funding through postage sales. The advent of Email and the internet dramatically reduced first-class mail volume…and then came the e-commerce-driven package delivery boom (known to most of us as the “Amazon era”). The COVID pandemic highlighted the essential nature of mail service as we all hunkered in our bunkers at home…waiting for our deliveries.
USPS delivers to 163+ million addresses. It delivers more mail to more addresses than any postal service worldwide. The postal service has been integral to American democracy, commerce, and communication for nearly 250 years. So when a neighbor recently sent an email to the hilltop hood saying that mail had been stolen from mailboxes and found in a pile by the roadside, we were all asked to install locking mailboxes to deter thieves from the hilltop. The USPS has mailbox specifications on height, distance from the curb, and mailbox size. I have opted to go with a Type II upgrade (it just looked more substantial), but with the original curved top. It will be imbedded in the stucco pillar that houses my old tin Type I. I’m not sure why I really need it or if I get anything important in the “snail mail” any longer, but I’m scared to be without it. It’s an important part of Americana. It was delivered to my front door yesterday by Amazon… not by USPS.