[lock-the-spock]

Interesting, it seems in the EU countries I lived in, a different solution emerged: the mail carriers cooperate with local corner shops (common in any EU city) and even supermarkets to serve as pick up points. In addition there are package lock boxes run by the mail carrier and distributed in central locations. I have never lived anywhere where I would have walked more than 10 minutes to the pickup, usually much less. The only issue I ever had was with a huge bulk parcel which I had to pick up at a depot, and a deouevry from china on which I had to pay duties. But that were 2 out of probably thousands of deliveries over the years.

On neighbours, the carriers usually let you choose if you want this to happen, but it's just a normal part of life to accept (and hand over) your neighbour's parcels. I have done so dozens of times and had it happen for me, even in rougher areas where I barely knew the neighbours. I guess levels of interpersonal trust might be higher in Europe than the U.S.?