Short Stuff: ZIP Codes! | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and we're here. with Zippy Mr zip also known as Jerry. sitting in for Dave who has nothing to. do with the post office and this is. short Stu that's right I'm sure we. probably talked about zip codes at to. some degree in the post office in our. episode on on yeah on zip. codes it was USBS we didn't do one on. zip codes no I okay okay good uh but.

we're going to talk a little bit about. zip codes that that thing on the. envelope that's uh um well it depends on. how long it is it depends well we we'll. get to what those numbers mean uh. because some of them are a little longer. than others um if you want to talk about. the origin of just postal codes um it. seems to be um from London because in. 1857 they started up with um 10. different sections of London like north. south WC Western Central just and the.

the whole point of all this is to you. know it's called a Zone Improvement plan. for a reason it's to improve the way. mail was delivered and just to make it. easier to sort and get out yeah and it's. whether it's 1857 or. 2024 zip codes and anything to do with. zip codes is something that's a. consequence of more and more people. showing up into a more and more densely. packed area it gets harder to deliver. the mail the more people there are so if. you can specify with greater detail you.

can make sure that that letter gets to. the right person even faster because if. you just put the if you just put the. address on there and throw it out into. the street it's G to take a while for it. to get where it's going. yeah well that's basically what we did. until July 1st 1963 in the United States. we had um you know the the street number. and Street and then the city and the. state and that was it uh it feels like. it would be very weird uh for my eyes to. see an address without a zip code cuz we.

grew up with them but uh you know if. you're around before 63 it's sort of. like us with the the area codes now on. telephones like we grew up without area. codes that you had to dial First too oh. yeah for sure um but there are. 41,600 ZIP codes in the United States uh. that number is not necessarily always. growing uh because when I looked at the. source material they're actually more. than are now so I guess they get.

combined or they shrink and things. change sure um but right now there's. like I said 41,600. fired him so that he couldn't tell.

anybody that they stole his idea I don't. believe that no you shouldn't but he did. come up with the uh the concept of zip. codes and the USPS did take his idea and. run with it but I I don't think that. they fired him and tried to shut him up. I think they were like yeah great great. idea kid yeah exactly um his only had. three digits at first um so he could. identify sort of the region where it was. going and then the city basically um. we'll we'll get probably the second half.

get to the um what they mean now but uh. I did mention it was an acronym for Zone. Improvement plan they did get zip um the. USPS that is um got it trademarked yeah. uh but they let it expire I guess when. they realize it like what's anyone gonna. do with the word zip exactly that really. matters you know right yeah I don't I. don't get it at all but yeah so I mean. if you wanted to use zip code yourself. then the post office is not going to sue. you for that because they can't be some. hot merch.

so the even before July 1st. 1963 when zip codes debuted um and I'm. sure for a while after until people. started using them because it wasn't. like an immediate like like um uh. left-hand driving day happened was it. Sweden or Denmark oh that's right H like. that was that happened on a specific. minute and it was that's the way it was. from that moment on zip codes were. introduced and it took a little while to. catch on but um one of the reasons why. zip codes were introduced was again.

because more and more people were moving. into cities and at the time if you. mailed the piece of mail it usually went. through about 17 stops from where you. dropped it off to where it ended up and. zip codes help improve that because it. it it Narrows the location that it's. going to head toward on its journey and. at each stop the the information located. in the zip code tells the people at that. step oh it needs to go this way um and. then it needs to go that way and it. needs to go here and then now it needs.

to go to this specific address yeah the. ZIP code should be first on the line if. you put it that way you know yeah for. sure somebody really dropped the ball. I'm looking at Robert Moon I guess they. know where to look though uh like you. said no one used it a lot at first and. it had to gain Steam and one of the ways. they um you know they got the pr team on. it the marketing team on it and they. they had Mr zip or Zippy like you kind. of joked about Jerry as a little little. character in the 1960s and70s when they. had new zip codes coming out they even.

had Ethel Merman do a commercial um. singing um to the tune of Zippity dudah. to literally just sort of Drive the idea. that like hey zip codes are here to stay. everyone get on board yeah honey. everything's coming. around what movie is that from uh I mean. I want to say airplane yes it was. airplane somebody ejected her with a. sedative while she was singing it was. great all right let's take a break and.

we'll come back and uh talk about how. you decipher these things and what all. those dumb numbers mean right after this. well now when you're on the road driving. in your truck why not learn a thing or. two from Josh and Chuck it's stuff you. should. know know all right. [Music].

okay Chuck it's time for the most. contentious part of this short stuff. we're going to talk about deciphering. those numbers in an American zip code. Zone Improvement plan. code the first number is pretty. non-controversial we're we're in. agreement that that stands for the. national area and there's nine no. there's 10 national areas um numbered 0. to 9.

zero starts in the. Northeast uh probably in honor of Robert. Moon and then nine goes up the West. Coast over to Hawaii and up to Alaska. that's the first number so wherever that. first number is it's going to hit a. specific region of the United States. that's called the national area yeah but. you hit on with region that's the way. people talk and that's how people say it. okay that's the first number what about. the second number number the next two.

numbers the next two numbers they start. drilling down even more uh so the next. two are going to be uh that is. specifically the region oh oh wait but. how can the first number and then the. next two all be the region well it it. drills down you use that first number to. get you to the general region and then. you go down to an even smaller region uh. in the next two numbers yeah also called. a sectional Center yeah the SCF right. right there on our page and then the the.

sectional Center can also be uh like a. large city itself yeah so sure nine is. is like California and 02 is Beverly. Hills maybe Los. Angeles because the one would be the. next two numbers that's the actual post. office that uh serves that area or group. of post office that serve that delivery. area.

yeah and again it all depends on how big. of an area you live in because once you. get to the plus4 system uh which came. about in 1983 you're drilling down even. more depending on how big of a place you. live uh the first two numbers of the. plus4 which is separated by a dash from. the initial five um the street or. building and then on the the second or. the last two numbers of the plus4 uh it. can even go down to the side of the. street or the floor of a building so as.

you'll see if you have a building big. enough you will have your own plus4. potentially with what floor of the. building that letter is going to go to. yeah in other words the United States. Postal Service knows exactly where you. are that's right uh and there are plenty. of buildings with their own uh postal. code. including um I guess the champion of. them all which is the White House that. has two zip codes yeah beat that you.

can't do it apparently the president's. family their personal private mail has. its own ZIP code and then there's the. regular one for the White House that's. right uh not just the white house uh. there's also like you said individual. buildings if it's a building big enough. it'll have its own first two numbers of. a plus4 my friend there are buildings so. big they they have their own ZIP code. itself yeah I mean uh the empire State. Building um obviously the World Trade.

Center had uh its own ZIP code mhm uh. saaks Fifth Avenue in New York City even. has its own ZIP code Yeah because. sometimes it's not just big it's. important or illustrious or glamorous in. the case of. sax uh Burning Man this might be the. fact of the show for me uh burning The. Burning Man festival has its own ZIP. code um while it's for two weeks out of. every summer yeah pretty cool huh 8 9412. they're sometimes they're very temporary.

too you know how you said sometimes they. grow sometimes they retract the total. number of zip codes yeah an example of. that was in 2005 when um Hurricane. Katrina hit New Orleans oh yeah uh and a. lot of people ended up in Houston and. there were so many um there was such an. influx of uh climate refugees from New. Orleans in Houston that they had to. house them in the Astrodome for a while. and to make sure that those people could. get mail and um send mail were given. their own ZIP code for the Houston.

Astrodome for a little while. 77230 yeah there's a bit of trivia for. you I grew up with. 388 oh mine was uh let's see oh man I. wish you hadn't just said that because. now I don't remember mine. really I figured that'd be sort of. drilled in like your your home phone no. I've got the rest of the address and my. home phone it's just the ZIP code I. can't remember well you could probably. get it there it also it just doesn't.

matter um there is also another way that. they get paired down too is if your town. um catches on fire for half a century oh. sure like in Centralia Pennsylvania. where the famous Coal Fire has been. burning for decades now the the the. Postal Service said we're throwing in. the towel on you guys in 1992 and revok. their zip. code the supposedly the wealthiest zip. codes are.

07620 Alpine New Jersey which I got to. look that up that it just must be like a. Tony bedroom community for New York or. something it does not make any sense and. 33109 fiser Island Florida that sounds. very exclusive uh it is not 9210 in. Beverly Hills no I'm sure there's a lot. of money there but it's not the. wealthiest no sorry everybody sorry to. burst your bubble 90210 fans I got to. figure out what's going on in Alpine New. Jersey yeah for real it's it's it's.

surprising there's another thing too. remember you talked about the PR. department getting going on getting. people to use ZIP codes in the 60s yeah. one of the people they tapped was Santa. Claus. himself they gave Santa his own ZIP code. 99701 and said little kids if you want. to send letters to Santa That's Santa's. new zip code so put it on there it's. pretty I remember I remember. specifically in one of our early. Christmas holiday specials we talked. about how Canada uh gave Santa his zip.

code for that country too and I think. it's 80. hh0 so it spells ho ho ho oh okay so by. the way in real time I just looked up. Alpine New Jersey real quick okay uh. fewer than 2,000 residents but they're. all rich yeah that's kind of skewing the. demo you know what I mean oh for sure. Chris Chris Rock Tracy Morgan Stevie. Wonder J Rule Lil. Kim so uh I thought it might be like. Elon Musk lived in that county that was. the only person or something but it it.

must just be a very limited number of. people and they're all loaded Tony like. you said to like a per capita thing. that's such a great use of that word I. like Tony uh if you like Tony oh wait I. was going to end this like a regular. episode but it's not a regular episode. Chuck which means that it just. stops stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts ihart radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you.

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