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by kube-system 1686 days ago
The main reason for this is not just a cultural difference, but a legal difference. Only the USPS can legally deliver to mailboxes. Otherwise, other services would definitely use them. There are, in some cases, other delivery services that ask their customer to have separate delivery boxes installed for their packages.

For example: https://img1.etsystatic.com/055/0/7471543/il_fullxfull.74786...
1 comments
Macha 1686 days ago
It's not this. Mailboxes in the American sense are uncommon in my country (most properties have a letter box, which is literally just big enough to fit a letter or small padded envelope through). Delivery companies still don't/(can't?) just leave it on a front step and call it delivered. If you're not there they'll maybe try deliver to your neighbours and failing that, send it back to their depot and either try another day or ask you to pick it up.
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kube-system 1686 days ago
I didn’t say there wasn’t a cultural difference, I said it wasn’t just a cultural difference. Signing for packages also used to be common in the US too, that culturally started changing around the dot com bubble when e-commerce companies fought for customers’ approval. Because even big American mailboxes can’t legally receive even a small envelope from a courier, it has become culturally normal to have them left out. It is normal because it is universally done.
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