A mail drop is a private business that receives mail on your behalf and handles it according to your instructions. They operate with the knowledge and cooperation of the Postal Service, yet provide many more services and convenience which the Postal Service does not offer. Indeed, the principal reason mail drops even exist is because the Postal Service has never chosen to be responsive to the public need for postal convenience and security. In the early Seventies, there were numerous instances of people being on waiting lists for up to a year just to obtain a post office box!
Mail drops are also known by other names, such as Mail Forwarding Service, Remail Service, Mail Receiving Service, the central purpose is that they will receive your mail from the post office and make it available to you as you require. The official attitude of the Postal Service is at least ambivalent since these businesses gladly handle mail that would otherwise present “problems” for postal employees.
Today there are perhaps as many as 5000 mail drops in the U.S. alone, most offering a wide selection for which their customers are more than willing to pay.