Sending a parcel to USA

[Cambridgeskip]

Not really scouting related but this seemed the best place to post this. Mrs Cambridgeskip has to send a parcel to someone in the states that has bought something she was selling on eBay. The address she’s been given consists of the persons name, town, state and zip code. No street or house number. Quick google search on the zip code takes us to the middle of a field in the middle of Minnesota, nearest building looks like a farm. Nearest town is miles away. Does that sound right? Is the parcel likely to make it to the right place with just that? Ie is a name and zip code enough in a rural area?

thanks in advance!

[Cubmaster Pete]

Would appear to be missing a house number and street or road. Mine would look like this

cubmaster pete

1234 anyroad

anytown, wi 53011

[walk in the woods]

Sure it's possible.  If the area is that remote the person delivering the mail knows the recipient. 

[MattR]

Small town in the middle of Minnesota? It could be the post office knows everyone. It could also be a polar vortex froze the poor lady's fingers. Or it could be a rural route that doesn't start with a number. I suspect ebay has a way to contact the buyer. Kind of a measure twice, cut once kind of thing. They won't mind, they're probably used to dealing with them city folk and will get a good laugh. Just use some word that spells differently over there and you'll make their day.

[qwazse]

Was there what seemed to be a suffix after the name?

In some townships growing up, addresses just had:

Quote

 

Name, rfd #__

Town, state zipcode.

 

RFD stands for rural free delivery. The # would be a postal route. If we were driving to our friends' house for the first time, we'd look up in the phone book which roads were on which route, and follow that route until we saw  box or signpost with our friends' family name. Sometimes we'd be at their grandma's or their cousins' house, and they'd tell us how much further in which direction to go from there.

Yes, the poster workers knew exactly who lived where on all of the routes.

[Saltface]

1 hour ago, qwazse said:

Yes, the poster workers knew exactly who lived where on all of the routes.

You’d be surprised how well your mail carrier knows you, city or rural.

I never had an address growing up. As long as the zip code is correct, I wouldn’t be too concerned about the package arriving.

[Jameson76]

Thought with all the 911 systems everyone had hard addresses now  An address tied to a specific geographic spot

[walk in the woods]

11 minutes ago, Jameson76 said:

Thought with all the 911 systems everyone had hard addresses now  An address tied to a specific geographic spot

Where I grew up in Western Illinois mail is still delivered to RR1.  Everyone one the route has a FPD number based on the county grid.

[Saltface]

56 minutes ago, Jameson76 said:

Thought with all the 911 systems everyone had hard addresses now  An address tied to a specific geographic spot

Nope. I know a few people whose address is still “Twelve miles past the turnoff to...”

Not that they all have telephones...

[Cambridgeskip]

Thank chaps, looks like it should get through! Looking at the area it's in it's something we don't really have here. Looks like absolutely vast farms with virtually no one living there. The only areas we have that empty are the Scottish Highlands which is basically mountains and not much else.

[scoutldr]

If you have the "zip+4" zipcode, that will narrow it down to about a 100 meter radius and is usually all that is needed.  For example, mine is 23464-7426

[SSScout]

I had a good friend who lived in Alaska.  His address, mailing or otherwise was   "Joe Friend, 2 miles Douglas Island Rd.  Juneau AA. "  

[mrkstvns]

22 hours ago, Saltface said:

You’d be surprised how well your mail carrier knows you, city or rural.

Quite right.

My carrier evidently knows how much I enjoy reading other peoples' mail because he gives me PLENTY of it!!