Yes, we know you probably sang that title. Perhaps even out loud. We did, too.
While we never tire of reminding you that we’re pretty zippy about getting your ads posted online, there’s another feature we offer on our website: you can find the closest spot to buy a physical copy of Paper Shop. It’s quick and easy: just pop in here, enter your zip code, and find vendors in your area.
Since we seem to be on a geography kick, here’s something you might not know: zip codes, introduced in 1963, have a very definite format to indicate exactly where a piece of mail is destined to go. The first digit tells us to which state the item is headed – Pennsylvania zip codes start with numbers 150-196. The second and third numbers stand for the sorting facility that needs to handle the mail. And while those last four digits (the ones after the hyphen) aren’t generally mandatory, they indicate more specific information about the delivery route and destination.
As we’re zipping through Postal Codes 101, it’s kind of cool to know that the ZIP in zip code is an acronym for “Zone Improvement Plan” and was chosen to indicate the speed at which the mail would be delivered with those codes.