For the week of  September 12 - 18, 2001

More bounty than needed

Commentary by JoELLEN COLLINS

---

So, on Monday, I took the time to ask one of our postal workers for the address of the agency which will block the sending of unsolicited advertising to one's mailbox.

---

Fall is here: I know it by the unwanted abundance of catalogs in my mailbox. The extravagant beauty of fall foliage is accompanied by the wretched excess of mail marketing.

In my most recent pile were the usual Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Bon sales and Coldwater Creek double or triple mailers. I also found appeals to buy window coverings, sportswear from three recognized national brand names, and cosmetics and gadgets for "emancipated" older women. There were pitches for gardening equipment, build-your own furniture, exotic foodstuffs, lingerie and museum reproductions and products from the Sturbridge Yankee Workshop mailer. I knew I was in trouble when a new one, a publication called "Potpourri ¾ Unique Gifts for Special People" emerged, complete with a scarecrow garden stake, a must for my condo deck!

Even though I don't want them, there will be more filling my slot at the post office with pre-Christmas offers. As I write this, in early September, I have already seen a television commercial with Santa, an occurrence that nauseated me. The glossy pages multiply like the brooms did for Mickey Mouse in "Fantasia." The more I grumble about hating them, the more I seem to get.

When I first moved here in the ’80s, I enjoyed receiving catalogs, especially on cold winter days when I felt isolated. I viewed them much as early citizens of rural areas must have felt about the Wells Fargo wagon.

But now I am merely irritated when I receive yet another unrequested flyer or catalog. Last Christmas, in an effort to be a good citizen, save trees, and cut down on postal workers' woes, I sent out 30 postcards to various companies requesting that they not mail me anything else. At Easter I did the same with 20 more. Some of these companies are still sending me junk, though most abided by my request.

I have been told that if I don't order from a catalog, eventually the company will take me off their list. If that is so, then why am I still getting gardening catalogs and seed order packets 12 years after I actually had a garden to plant and ordered tulip bulbs for it? I am skeptical of claims that insist the catalogs will disappear if we don't like them.

After I ordered a game from a new catalog last Christmas and never played it, I vowed not to succumb again to buying something I really didn't need. Unfortunately, in the past few months I ordered something from a company that sold my name once again, and I also turned a crucial age noted by marketers. So, now I am getting a whole range of new advertising and solicitations. Last Saturday, I counted 12 catalogs in my box and Sunday, 8, none of them from companies whose products I have purchased.

I reacted with exasperation, thinking out loud, and found two other people near me laughing and saying they felt the same way. So, on Monday, I took the time to ask one of our postal workers for the address of the agency which will block the sending of unsolicited advertising to one's mailbox. I have it now and immediately sent them a letter requesting they remove my name from solicitors' lists. Here it is, for those of you who have procrastinated, as I did, on cutting off the flow of junk.

Direct Marketing Association

Mail Preference Service

P.O. Box 9008

Farmingdale, NY 11735

I would hope this would be sufficient to minimize the flood of unwanted junk mail. However, the postal clerk told me that the request only lasts for three months, that one needs to send a reminder at least that often. And then there is the problem of what happens to the three or four catalogs I really do want. They will probably stop sending as well. Even if I order from a particular vendor and at the same time request that my name not be sold, I fear that my wishes will not be honored and deluge will once again commence. Thus my quandary is this: should I never order from any catalog or take my chances with the very few I enjoy? I'm leaning towards the option of no catalogs at all. No matter how attractive the photography or tempting the offer, no matter how easy it may seem to have a tantalizing new sweater sent to me without leaving my door, I think I will resist.

In three months I will once again send a postcard to the direct marketing association and continue to throw the detritus I receive in the recycle bins without even opening them. Otherwise I might purchase something I don't really need, use up a tree in just a few months, and leave myself open to the kind of irritation mixed with irrational guilt I now feel when I can't find my correspondence for the plethora of brightly colored catalogs jammed in my mailbox.

Perhaps it is time to remind myself that I really don't need much of anything ¾ I may want goodies, but don't need them. And just perhaps local shopkeepers will benefit slightly from my refusal to give in to the siren call of national companies. Shopping locally looks better than ever.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.