Mr. Zip, a gangly cartoonish figure with wide friendly eyes and a neat blue mail carrier's uniform, emerged fifty years ago to help the U.S. Postal Service promote its newest idea: five numbers added ...

The humble ZIP Code shows up in all kinds of surprising places. Planet Money looks at how it was born, how it transformed the mail and talks to one researcher who argues that it's gone too far. The ...

The other day a tech savvy San Francisco woman logged onto to Fedex.com to schedule a package delivery. As she opened her account, the website asked her a series of multiple choice questions to ...

Recently I wrote an article about why so many stores ask for your ZIP code at check-out. With your name and ZIP they can turn to outside data brokers to learn your address, phone number and email -- ...

The holidays were busy for mail carriers because we were busy sending packages with a familiar five-digit code. Our Planet Money team got curious, where did ZIP codes come from? Here's reporter Sally ...