Junk Mail Sucks. CatalogChoice Rules.

Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Zach.
Categories: General, Sustainability, Systems of the World.

What is up with junk mail this year?

It seems worse than ever before - especially around the holidays. At my house, because the people upstairs have been there since 1962, we must get 35 catalogs a day during the holidays and probably 15 - 20 a day any other time. The worst part is, NONE of them get used. We literally pull them out of the mail basket and toss them straight into the recycling bin - it totally sucks.

Over the last year or so I have been looking for some sort of system to deal with this. There are a bunch of paid services which, for a monthly fee, will continually remove you from lists, but somehow this is annoying to me. Why should I have to pay to ensure I won’t get something I never wanted in the first place. It is these types of systems (and double negative sentences) in the world that drive me most crazy.

19 Billion catalogs are mailed every year. No I didn’t stutter, that is billion with a “b”. If my house is any indication, exactly 12 of those total catalogs are actually useful.

And while I am on the subject..WHY DOES THIS WORK !?! I don’t get it, it is just like spam - who is clicking on all the Russian Brides, Viagra, and Penis Enlargement emails and saying to themselves; “I sure am getting a good deal!”, I mean seriously who is that?

Hmm…actually looking at that list, I see a clear consumer profile emerging. That one lonely guy is ruining it for the rest of us - he must be found and stopped.

Before I get all hopped up on a rant longer than the average blog attention span, let me move on to the solution. Recently a coalition of enviro groups put together a catalog list, somewhat like the “Do Not Call” list for phones.

Check out CatalogChoice.org. Simply enter in the catalog name and your customer number. Then sit back and watch the mail become manageable. It is freaking great, and CatalogChoice is my new hero.

FYI, it does take a while to process the unsubscribes, so don’t get discouraged if you still get the catalogs for a while - some take up to 10 weeks to take you off the list.

It is still totally annoying to me that I have to go in and get rid of something I never wanted, but at least someone is providing me with a solution. Plus, I have found that once you get into the thing, it is totally addictive to reduce all this crap from your mail.

Love it.

Big up to JR for reminding me to post this.

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