Catalog Craziness

Rather than immediately recycling them, I've been saving up my catalogs since around Thanksgiving, just as sort of social experiment. I always get a lot of catalogs during the holidays, so I thought I'd take a total at the end of the shopping season to see how many I'd received. Keep in mind that I am one person, living alone, with no roommate or live-in boyfriend who would use my address. I also don't have a lot of credit accounts, which is one way you get on a lot of mailing lists for random catalogs...

Even with those constraints, I received in excess of forty catalogs during the past 4 - 5 weeks. When stacked up, the whole group measures over six inches tall.

While I occasionally flip through catalogs to see how they're photographed and merchandised, I consider them to be a retail magazine that sets the tone for the brand image. But shop from them? No. They're handy for me to get a preview of what's in the store, but in reality, isn't that what websites are for these days?

Being a member of the internet generation, I've never really shopped via catalog. I remember the days when my mother used to find her SKU codes, total up her amounts with tax and shipping, fill in a form from the center of the catalog, and send it off to someplace with a check in a pre-printed envelope. This method of shopping has been around since the days of the original Sears Catalog, but it hasn't been a part of my life at all.

I shop online or in an actual store, but I've never once dialed a number and ordered via catalog. Which of course begs the question, why do I get any catalogs? Given my purchase history, I should think that I would have been flushed from the marketing distribution lists many years ago, and yet I still get piles and piles of glossy paper.

The funniest thing is that a number of the titles are from retail establishments I don't even shop at all. L.L. Bean, Victoria's Secret, Harry & David, Gump's, and Garnet Hill are places I never visit. Then there's the incongruous issue of "Solutions" - a place that sounds like a money laundering ring. If I ever did shop these places, it was years ago and I cannot even remember the occasion. Even for the places I do shop such as Sephora, Athleta, J. Crew, Bloomingdale's, and the other department stores, does my purchase history really merit multiple issues of the same content?

Looking at the pile, I'm ashamed to admit that I barely even glanced at any of this collateral this season. I didn't have a lot of money to spend, and for gift-giving I either made my presents or knew exactly what I was going to buy. Would any catalog, even in multiples, persuade me otherwise?

And, when you consider the expenditure in natural resources on all of these, the totals are staggering - especially for just one person in one household.

For me, the creulest joke was the array of catalogs from the Williams-Sonoma brands. I was laid off from Williams-Sonoma last January, along with almost 1400 other people, due to a shrinking market share and revenue losses. The fact that I received fourteen catalogs from their brands alone leaves a gigantic pit in my stomach. I didn't even flip through any of them.

I hefted the entire pile down to my recycling bin this afternoon and was very happy to have the weight (almost 20 pounds of paper) out of my apartment.

So how do we become paper-less households and paper-less shoppers? I feel like the printed catalog is becoming more and more of a waste, especially as companies are facing hard times. I know there are theories about the power of the catalog, etc, but does any of that hold up in a society driven more and more by ecommerce?

I'm just not sure the waste is worth it any longer. What do you think?

Comments

[maura]

Go to catalogchoice.org and request to be taken off the mailing lists of various companies. We've had good luck and are off almost all lists within 60 days or so. We now receive only the catalogs we actually want to flip through. Environmental and organize-y!

[alyssa]

I am amazed at what companies probably spend on the once a week catalogs they send out (particularly the ones you mentioned) and most of the time, it's the same insides but with a different cover image!

I put my name on a list last year to receive minimal catalogs via mail, not sure if it was the one mentioned in the above comment but it drastically reduced the amount of catalogs clogging up my mailbox.

[Chriss]

Not everyone is computer savvy. Some the older customers may prefer to shop out of a catalog. I suppose the companies rather have the little business they get from catalogs rather than stop producing catalogs all together.

[Ms. P&C]

I agree that there is something to be said for catalogs, especially for those who aren't yet comfortable with online shopping.

That being said though, for myself and others like me in my demographic who don't shop via catalog, isn't there a way to hold off on sending catalogs to us? It's just so wasteful for those who don't use them (or who use them merely for visual entertainment)...

I just think that in this day and age where the marketing lists can be filtered and flushed, that the retailers should be smarter about how they expend their precious resources.

[WendyB]

That Williams-Sonoma thing really does suck >:-(

[jenny]

+1 for catalogchoice.org

[Mini]

Wow, what an interesting post! I don't receive many (if any) catalogs, by some stroke of luck. But you're so right about the waste! That's so much paper, which takes trees, water and energy to produce, for something that will likely be discarded without a second glance. I would think that in the age of technology, receiving a catalog would be an opt-in situation, not one that you have to beg to get out of. Hmm.

[K]

I just go to the websites of unwanted catalogs and ask to be removed there. A few catalogs brighten a dull day, even from places I never would order, so I don't want to cut them all out.

[acid reflux diets]

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