US cognac depletions — the quantity of cognac shipped from distributors to retailers — and USPS package volume have, between 2005 and 2023, risen together at a correlation of 0.960. Two quietly indispensable parts of American adult life, arriving in boxes. One to the door; one to the glass.
US cognac depletions climbed from around 4 million cases in 2005 to over 7 million by 2021 before softening in 2023, driven largely by hip-hop's cultural adoption of the category — particularly Hennessy — as a brand signifier, producing decades of sustained consumer demand. USPS package volume grew from about 3 billion in 2005 to over 7.2 billion by 2023, driven by the e-commerce revolution and the permanent rewiring of American logistics around online retail. The two trends reflect two completely separate cultural and economic transitions running in parallel across the same two-decade window: one about alcohol category dominance through cultural reference, one about retail infrastructure rebuilding around the front door.
Nineteen years of two lines rising together can describe two different deliveries of the same era to the same household. The bottle and the box both arrived. Neither is an accident.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “USPS package volume” vs “U.S. cognac depletions” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
