Our mailbox is not near our front door. We have to walk a quarter of a mile to get our mail. This is what happens when your front yard is too big. The mail carrier isn’t expected to turn into long driveways. So, you get your morning exercise while retrieving the mail. Lately, this has become more of a chore. Due to the Covid pandemic, and increased shopping online or by mail, companies have started sending out more printed catalogs. As a result, we’re carrying out heavier loads of trash. A vicious cycle. Help! We’re deluged with catalogs.

Help! We're deluged with catalogs that clog up our trash can. — Help! We’re deluged with catalogs. It’s a chore to carry them in and throw them out of the house.

It’s fairly inexpensive for companies to mail a catalog. Postage costs run about 50 to 70 cents. The price of the printed material varies greatly. Classy catalogs with glossy paper and beautiful photos cost a lot more. Those flyers with sleazy paper and sloppy print jobs are a lot cheaper. Apparently, printed catalogs pay off, or companies wouldn’t keep sending them. Nevertheless, they ought to realize that octogenarians don’t buy many new clothes or household goods.

We succumb to the lure of the catalog shopping a couple of times a month. Somewhere in catalog heaven, someone is keeping a list of those purchases, and we’re considered fair game.. But today was the last straw, when I saw a catalog almost two inches thick in our mailbox. It must have weighed five pounds, and came from a company we’ve never heard of. After lugging it into the house along with one first class letter, a slew of third class mail and four other catalogs, I was exhausted. And mad.

We’ve tried to stop the deluge by writing “refused” on the unwanted catalogs in black ink, and dropping them off at the post office. Doesn’t work. What must we do? I went online, and this is what I found under e how:

“There’s no one simple way to permanently stop catalogs from coming to your home. The United States Postal Service and/or your individual mail carrier can’t do anything to help since they’re obligated to deliver any mail that’s addressed to you. The only way to cancel catalogs is to go directly to the source: the company or companies that send them to you. You can do this yourself as each new catalog arrives in your mailbox. Check the front or back of the catalog for contact information and call the company to ask to be removed from the catalog mailing list or visit the retailer’s website to see if there’s an opt-out form you can complete online.”

Is it reasonable to expect a recipient to spend maybe hours per day calling each and every company, going through various voice mails, finally speaking to a customer service representative whom you can barely understand? And then, a month later, when you receive yet another one of their catalogs, will you repeat the process?

Help! We’re being deluged with catalogs and we want it to stop.

Believe it or not, I had never purchased anything from a picture in a catalog until I was over 50. Strangely enough, my first job out of college was as a catalog copywriter for Montgomery Ward in Chicago. It was the first step into the glamourous world of advertising. But there’s no way I would have ordered so much as a pair of socks. Not when there was Michigan Avenue, with Carson’s, Marshall Field’s and all of the wonderful stores within walking distance. But later on, I married a man who had been born and raised on a farm in Nebraska. Catalog shopping was a way of life for him. Even before Covid, I had succumbed to the lure of all the shiny catalogs he received. And during the pandemic, it was the only way to go. Now, we receive at least one package every week. Help! We’re addicted to catalogs.

Help! We're addicted to catalogs. It's so much easier than in store shopping, but we buy more..

Help! We’re addicted to catalogs. During the pandemic, we came to enjoy the convenience. Trouble is, we buy a lot more.

By catalogs, I include shopping websites like Amazon. Buying from a picture on online is no different than a catalog purchase. You like what you see, read the product description, click on “buy now,” and wait for the package to show up at your doorstep or in your mailbox. Sometimes, you’re disappointed. The shoe doesn’t fit, or the beige dress turns out to be yellow. And returns are somewhat of a bother. But I’ve always gotten my money back, and I didn’t have to stand in line at a customer service counter.

I still miss retail therapy. Smelling the perfume as you walk in a department store; seeing all the bright new fashions, geegaws and gimcracks on display. You could spend hours going from one department to the other. But there’s the problem for seniors. A trip to the mall leaves us exhausted.

Online shopping, or e-commerce, as they call it, has increased by 34% since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic. Some small shops are beginning to open up again, and a few larger stores have kept their doors open. But now, we’ve grown fond of ordering from the comfort of our homes.. There’s much more to choose from, and it’s so easy. I’m afraid we’ll never see the return of the big department stores we loved in the 20^th century

The trouble is, we’re buying a lot more stuff than we used to. Help! We’re addicted to catalogs.

Tag: CATALOG SHOPPING

HELP! WE’RE DELUGED WITH CATALOGS

HELP! WE’RE ADDICTED TO CATALOGS.

The trouble is, we’re buying a lot more stuff than we used to. Help! We’re addicted to catalogs.