When Vanessa Troyer and Chris Farentinos first hit on the idea that would change their lives, they were thinking big – a little too big, actually, according to a story in The New York Times.
It was a mail receptacle/guest house,” Farentinos jokes, describing an oversize, locking mailbox nicknamed the Elephant Trunk.
His wife agrees. “It was big enough to fit a small family,” Troyer recalls of their contraption, which the couple invented in 1999 to accept delivery of large packages and to keep the parcels safe and dry, no matter how long homeowners were away.
From the ashes of their experiment arose two smaller products – the Oasis and the Oasis Jr. – that have put their company, Architectural Mailboxes, on the map.
Their smallest locking curbside model is available at Costco.com, Target.com, Lowe’s and about half of Home Depot’s 1,900 stores in the United States. To date, the couple estimates that they’ve sold more than 150,000 of their newfangled, secure letter drops, which cost $97 to $258. They expect to sell 50,000 more this year.
Photo by NYTimes.