By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Nor rain, nor snow, nor dark of night… can be pleasant when the 35 million rural mailbox owners in the US slog to their mailboxes in inclement weather only to find the mail has yet to be delivered—or someone else has already gotten it. One too many of those trips prompted Grand Rapids inventor Jim Fields to create Mail’s Here!, a mail delivery alert system.
“I was always going down to the mailbox to see if the mail had been delivered,” said Fields, inventor, patent holder, and national account sales manager. “It was 100 feet, and I’d have to cross against oncoming traffic.”
With Mail’s Here!, a flag pops up when the mailbox is opened. When the mailbox owner sees the flag, they know the mail has been delivered. When they pick up the mail, they fold the flag down, re-engage the hook plate, and it’s ready for the next delivery. A decorative mount affixes the flag to the mailbox top with double-sided tape.
Although the product just hit the market in April, the company sold 14,000 units in the previous six months during a catalog market test. At $19.95 each, that’s nearly $300,000, and sales continue to climb.
Currently the only decorative option is a red, white, and blue flag/eagle panel that comes with each unit. Fields is working with several national non-profits to create decorative panels that display their names and logos to be sold as fundraisers. A portion of those sales goes to the organizations.
Source: Jim Fields, Mail’s Here!
Deborah Johnson Wood is Development News Editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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