Category Archives: junk mail

The Last Year of the Catalog

It’s that season again and the mailbox is filling with oh so many offerings of this sale and that, cajoling, enticing me to buy soon and early and get free shipping and get a free one if I only send one.

I won’t harangue you about how many trees were consumed in creating these catalogs or how much carbon is being spewed into the air just delivering them to every American mailbox. But has it occurred to you that these consumption instigators are simply becoming irrelevant? Not one of these businesses would be caught dead without a full-fledged website sporting a full online display of every item in their catalog!

I used to refer to that pile of Christmas catalogs as my “idea” pile; this year the stack will become my more aptly named “funeral” pile. I am saving them to enter, one by one, into Catalog Choice to put an end to their endless distribution in my direction. Within 10 weeks of such action, according to this service, I will no longer receive them. Consider this my vote.