Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Catalog Choice

Does anyone else get totally annoyed by the amount of junk mail they get? Especially catalogs! Especially catalogs for companies from which I have only purchased things on-line. I mean, really, you already have my email address. It would save you a ton of money just to email me whatever it is you have to say. Because let's face it, I was going to delete/recycle it anyway, so why bother spending the money on postage in the first place? I'm sure there's some study out there somewhere that I don't feel like finding that says people are more likely to buy from a company if they get a physical catalog than if they get an email with the new stuff.

I have to say, though, I suspect that trend will change. (Do you like how I'm making predictions about a study I didn't even bother to find? Yup. I'm that smart.) Right now the babyboomers have the deepest pockets, and they aren't all used to shopping on-line (although even my mother recently embraced the wonders of macys.com, and purchased some lovely towels for Captain America and me.) Nonetheless, I imagine as the financial heavyweights shift down in age...ok, maybe not age, as much as generation, the people with the greatest spending power are going to be those who are used to being plugged in 24/7. And those people aren't likely to care what your little circular is saying. They're going to cross-reference the item against amazon, google reviews of the product, and tweet their friends about whether or not they should get one. Of whatever it is.

So in the meantime, if you're interested in not getting a bunch of junk mail that you then have to recycle (you are recycling it, right?), you should check out this site, catalog choice. Catalog Choice is a non-profit, FREE service that will stop the junk catalogs for you. They do request a donation, which is tax deductible, but it is totally not mandatory. And you can even check off a little box saying why you don't want the catalog any more (see? if you check off "help the environment," then the company knows you don't hate them; you just don't need a piece of mail to remind you to go shopping. 'Cause we all care about the feelings of companies.)

I love when I can not pay other people to remove random crap from my life, don't you?

1 comment:

  1. Whoa! You changed your blog format! I just call the numbers on the back of the catalog and tell them to stop sending me their junk. It's worked pretty well! Almost no catalogs - but I still get those pesky credit card offers!

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