Those of us old enough to have been addicted to Seinfeld know exactly what I’m talking about. Lanky, crazy-haired Kramer took it upon himself one day to stop all of the mail going into his mailbox. Not some of it. All of it. It was just too annoying.
Today I feel like Kramer. I love my mail, but today I hate it. I just got back from the mailbox and it has about three pounds of mail in it. Let’s see . . .
- A catalog from In the Swim, an online pool products company used by the former owner of the house but which I have not ordered from since I bought the house two years ago.
- A catalog from Northern Tool + Equipment, a company I have never purchased from.
- A catalog from Uline, a two-pound (by itself) catalog I have also not ordered from.
- Then there was some kind of letter from AT&T that is all but irrelevant to me except that I do, in fact, have AT&T as my wireless carrier.
In the Swim sends me catalogs every few months. They still haven’t figured out I don’t order pool supplies online. The other two are catalogs I haven’t received before. Where did they buy my name? It’s not a very good list.
Fortunately, none of the catalogs had anything printed on them about saving the earth. Good! Because sending irrelevant 100+-page catalogs isn’t very earth friendly. It’s also not a very good way to spend your marketing dollars. I guess the economy must really be improving. Apparently, these catalogers have a lot of extra money to spend — and their green teams are asleep at the wheel.
There is definitely a lot of waste in the postal system, but I personally enjoy getting catalogs or magazines because I’ve subscribed to them and I’m interested in reading them.