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To help us celebrate Independent Retailer Month on Furries & Edibles, today we’re talking with Phil Gaven, who runs The Honey Exchange here in Portland, Maine. We learned a lot from Phil on the various revenue streams that are available in the beekeeping industry, including everything from grocery and retail products to beekeeping supplies and pollination services.

Phil is an accomplished apiarist and storyteller, and he knows more about the science and business of bees than almost anyone alive. 

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Happy Zip Code Day!

ZipCodeDay

Some fun zip code facts:

• ZIP stands for Zone Improvement Plan
• Zip codes were created by the United States Postal Service
• 2-digit codes were introduced by the USPS during WWII to help expedite mail delivery when many of the experienced mailmen and postal workers were stationed overseas and replaced with less experienced USPS staff
• Zip codes as we know them today were rolled out in 1963
• Zip codes only contain numbers
• Zip codes are only used in the United States / overseas stations for US armed forces, the Philippines, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau
• All other countries use Postal Codes, which were introduced in 1959
• Postal Codes use a combination of numbers, letters, and (sometimes) punctuation marks.
• Postal Codes are also used to collect demographic information and for route planning.
• In the United States ZIP codes increase from east to west (e.g. Maine begins with 0 and California begins with 9). The format is: Region + Central Post Office Facility + Local Post Office
• There are close to 42,000 zip codes in the United States (Canada has close to 862,000 postal codes)
• Zip codes change every year (there are approximately 5,000 changes in any given year)
• The average number of people that live in a given zip code is close to 8,000
• Smokey the Bear has his own zip code (20252)