Zip Code

Used to be when I needed to deposit a check in my bank account, I would just drive over to the bank and deliver it in person. Time passed, things changed, and now I mail my deposits.

For a while, I was filing medical insurance claims on fairly regular basis. The address was some post office box somewhere in the Northwest, and the four digit box number was the same as the four digit suffix to the Zip Code. With the Zip Code, you don't really need the city or state, and if the box number is the same as the suffix, I bet you can do without it as well. So I started addressing my mail with just the name of the company and the nine digit number. Worked fine for a long time. Then one day I tried it with a bank deposit, and it got bounced back by some officious numbskull. Bah. And they still don't supply me with preaddressed envelopes or even address stickers.

I used to buy gas at a funky little gas station because there usually wasn't a line of cars waiting to buy gas like there was at the, fancy, new, modern Chevron station. But recently they started asking me for my Zip Code (I use a credit card to buy gas). No big deal, but it irritates me. So I started going to Chevron, where they don't ask me for my Zip Code. No lines there anymore either, so it's okay. I don't know whether they are just selling less gas, or I have learned not to go there when they are busy. Albertson's (a grocery store) doesn't ask for your Zip Code when you buy gas there either. I wonder who is in charge of the Zip Code question decision.