Cream skimming

Cream skimming is a pejorative conceptual metaphor used to refer to the perceived business practice of a company providing a product or a service to only the high-value or low-cost customers of that product or service, while disregarding clients that are less profitable for the company.

For example, it was believed that MCI and Sprint long-distance telephone companies would end up taking away very high value business and some residential accounts from AT&T, leaving AT&T primarily with higher-cost to service accounts or ones producing less revenue (such as customers in less-densely populated or rural areas), meaning all customers of AT&T would end up paying more.

[1] This could conceivably lead to a vicious circle as more customers leave the high-price carrier for the lower priced carrier, thus forcing still more price increases to cover the upward spiraling costs of providing service to a shrinking revenue base.

This scenario did not occur, as various technological changes (spurred in part by the availability of competition) eventually lowered the net cost for most long-distance telephone calls.

This means that, even though mail boxes, such as those in the door of a house, or on the curb, or in the front lobby of the customer's building, are owned by the customer, and not owned by the Postal Service, by law only the Postal Service may use them to deliver mail.