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In Sam’s own words

Sam Meers wrote a clear and concise post about Catalog Choice over at his blog “Smoke & Meers”.

Sam states in his post titled A Win/Win/Win:

There are lots of benefits to this idea. First, it just makes sense. If people don’t want a catalog, then they shouldn’t receive it. It will either go in the trash or, if we’re lucky, get recycled, which uses energy that would have never have been needed if the catalog had never been produced and mailed in the first place.

But the thing I love about this idea is that it puts the decision in the hands of the consumer, not the company. And because it is done so well, both the consumer and the company benefit. Consumers get only the catalogs they desire and companies don’t waste money and natural resources sending a catalog to people who will only throw it away.

They call this site “Catalog Choice.” But it’s really “Consumer Choice.” Consumers win. Marketers win. The environment wins. Even the Post Office wins. I doubt all those postal carriers want to lug around all those catalogs and deliver them to people who are just going to throw them away.

I raise my glass and toast the founders. Well done!

Sam - our glasses are raised to you, thanks!

Catalog Choice Team

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

17 Responses to “In Sam’s own words”

  1. Sam,

    You could not had said it any better.

    Yvonne Camesi on May 23rd, 2008 at 1:02 pm

  2. I wonder if Sam realizes before he writes that people dont get taken off the mailing list because the CREDIT BUREAUS and other PUBLIC RECORDS keep trading consumer data unless commanded to stop! I have yet to see how only CATALOG removal sites effectively keeps your name and address from being actively traded by other national marketing\data-trading companies. It doesnt, thats why other people have written here saying they see no improvement. Just wondering how long it will take catalog choice to finally figure that out?!! LOL

    Anika on May 24th, 2008 at 10:49 am

  3. STOP CATALOGS AT THE SOURCE!

    http://www.privacyrights.org
    (direct marketing section)

    Justin on May 24th, 2008 at 11:35 am

  4. Does catalog choice have something to be afraid of by removing my previous post? Like that fact that people will find out that you are not being HONEST about how your website does not work because it only takes care of CATALOGS, not the fact that people are not TRULY opted out because PUBLIC RECORDS still keeps trading their data? I noticed that you have NEVER explained that on this site. Why? Because it wouldn’t make you look quite so pretty. :-)

    Justin on May 24th, 2008 at 11:37 am

  5. Justin — it is pretty clear what Catalog Choice is intended to do: opt people out of receiving unwanted catalogs. Over 200 companies are cooperating with Catalog Choice and the site helps both consumers and businesses.

    Daniel on May 26th, 2008 at 6:09 am

  6. Daniel: You’re right, thats what Catalog Choice INTENDS to do. But what Catalog Choice never says anywhere on this site is that the reason people still GET the catalogs is because their information is not stopped from being traded\marketed AT OTHER SOURCES. So the marketing\mailing continues to go around in a vicious cycle which eventually leads to people getting back ON the list of catalogs they originally opted out from on this website.

    Justin on May 26th, 2008 at 8:21 am

  7. I understand what you’re saying, Justin and Anika. From where I sit, though, it looks like Catalog Choice has been at least partially successful in their mission. I have 71 opt-outs, and I received not a single catalog last week. That’s not the first catalog-free week this spring, and it’s a huge improvement from the previous year. A handful of merchants have been ignoring my requests and/or running tests, but the majority now appear to be applying suppression files correctly to remove my name, even when it comes from an outside source.

    In the interest of full disclosure, I’m sure it helps that I have ordered only twice from any multichannel merchants in the past eight months, and I’ve done business with both of those previously. I also live in the same house my husband and I bought in 1992, drive the same car I inherited in 1990 (infrequently—I mostly walk nowadays), and have never given birth. So some of the main public records which attract marketers are not so problematic for me.

    Regardless, Catalog Choice can’t do anything about public records. I like that the service specifically targets catalogs, which have been the one of the biggest sources of consternation in my attempts to reduce my carbon footprint. I never felt like I had any control before the launch of this site. Now I can see and record exactly what’s going on. And the results have been more positive than not.

    Tracy Glomski on May 26th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

  8. I think this is a great service; and at the very least a place to start putting an end to all the CATALOGS that I used to receive. I have had to contact only 3 companies to get items from being delivered. In the process, I took the magazines I did not want to my local RECYCLING CENTER!!

    CHERYL on May 27th, 2008 at 12:35 am

  9. Tracy:

    That’s nice. :-) I’m glad they’ve been “partially” sucessful for you. I went through DMA, ABACUS, ACXIOM and OPTOUTPRESCREEN and so far I’ve gotten NO JUNK MAIL since. So if you’re still getting HALF the catalogs you used to, then that’s great. I prefer to haul NO catalogs or any other JUNK MAIL to the recycling center and be forced to pay for it. Around here we have to pay for recycling by the BAG so going through a website that only HALF works is not an option for me. :-)

    Justin on May 28th, 2008 at 8:28 am

  10. Justin:

    You are not telling the whole story. If you purchase from a merchant, then the other services you reference (DMA, ABACUS, etc.) will not remove your name. These services are only for “prospects”. The only way to effectively stop mail/catalogs from a merchant with whom you have been a customer is to either use a service like ours or call the merchant directly. Neither one of these approaches are guaranteed. At least with Catalog Choice, we can provide systematic approach that is easy for consumers and merchants.

    In response to your comment to Daniel, you are not aware of the way the process works. If you opt-out of a catalog on our service or by calling a merchant, your name is added to a merchant-specific do not mail list or flagged in their customer database as “do not mail/do not rent”. If the merchant follows the privacy guidelines, all names on this list are suppressed from mailings each time they put together a mail drop.

    You seem to be quite well informed about the process, so we hope that you can be supportive of services like ours that are trying to fill the voids and make it easier for everyone.

    Chuck on May 28th, 2008 at 9:29 am

  11. The reduction at our place is a lot better than half, Justin! I’m not sure what I wrote that might’ve given the wrong impression. Of the 71 opt-outs in my Catalog Choice account, only four of those merchants sent any catalogs in May. That’s a 94 percent success rate for this month. I remain hopeful that it will eventually reach 100 percent.

    PrivacyRights.org is a very good site. I’ve seen it before, but I’m glad you linked to it for those who haven’t. The fact sheet is unfortunately a little out-of-date for the DMA info, since their registration period dropped from five years to three years sometime in 2007. I actually agree with you that OptOutPrescreen is a tremendous help. I stopped getting credit card offers almost immediately after I signed up there.

    DMA’s mail preference service failed me, though. Chuck is right about the prospecting mailings, but heck, DMA couldn’t even stop those for me. I think the DMA has no real power to enforce member compliance (and no great motivation to do so, for that matter). Frankly, I don’t see anything which stops various data vendors from simply ignoring the DMA’s suppression lists. There’s no transparency, so who’s gonna know who’s playing fair and who’s not? I didn’t bother going the Abacus route because Epsilon is supposed to honor opt-outs submitted through the DMA. That is clearly stated on the AbacusOptOut.com webpage. I shouldn’t have needed to register at both places if the DMA system had actually been working.

    I’m thrilled you’ve stopped receiving junk mail. That’s great. We’ve reduced our own household trash nearly to the point where we can discontinue our curbside pick-up altogether. We compost our food scraps. With just a little more care and with the unwanted mailings under control, we could haul the remaining waste to the landfill/recycling center about once every month or two.

    Since you’re not having any problems, though, I have to ask: why are you even posting here? It doesn’t make sense to me that you’d be all up in arms about a service that’s apparently of no longer of any interest to you. Surely you have better things to do with your time than saving all of us who’ve supposedly been bamboozled by a service that’s…well, free. I can’t figure out what the detractors want—a money-back guarantee?

    Personally, I remain happy with the progress Catalog Choice has made, and I will continue to use this service through the holiday season and beyond.

    Tracy Glomski on May 28th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

  12. Hi Tracy! I am very pleased with CC.org’s progress too. 85 Confirmed! Received about 15 catalogs this month mainly hangers on that just keep on and on.

    This is for everyone, To change the subject a bit, I visited forestethics.org yesterday and came across a very well written blog by Anne Landman (she works for PRWatch.org). Her discussion of MPS’s, USPS and more really mirrored alot of what Tracy, myself and many countless others including CC.org have written on this site. I called her company and explained the similarities to a very nice person who said they will pass that on to Anne. This person also said that Anne usually writes about tobacco but has received several responses both good and bad and it was quite a surprise.

    CC.org, I am glad to be a member and that you retain past postings so people can go back and see what consumers including myself have experienced in calling and writing catalog companies to opt out and their failure to listen. This is a great tool for new members!

    Justin, Been trying to get off by calling catalogs since Sep07, writing to them since late Dec07. Then joined these guys in late Jan08. We were getting over 100 catalogs a week. I still do call them and restrain from being rude as the Cust Svc Rep is just doing what they are trained to do. I always put thought into what I’ve posted here and have gone governmental only as a last resort because I firmly believe that a Do Not Mail law needs to be passed so CC.org can make a big big difference in providing what they offer - a right to choose what goes in our mailboxes.

    Atleast I know that I’ve joined thousands of others in doing something to catch the governments attention to go Green rather than sit and stew about it. As I said in one of my first blogs on this site months ago, it’s my bag and not everyone’s else’s to belong to CC.org and “run to the government” but I’ll continue on.

    Yvonne Camesi on May 29th, 2008 at 9:54 am

  13. I joined CC thinking I received 5 or 6 catalogs. After opting out every month since December I really can’t believe I have been receiving so many. Think about the people who are NOT paying attention!! I have stopped shopping with merchants who refuse to take me off their list and like many others have begun shopping with retailers(from this site) that choose to act responsibly. Heads ups, watch your sales…..

    Sharon Hurd on May 29th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

  14. I agree totally with Yvonne’s posting about a DO NOT MAIL opt-out similar to the DO NOT CALL registry. Recently I saw on a Canadian Broadcasting Co. newscast that a DO NOT MAIL opt-out is law in Canada, although the report was showing how most “Canadians on the street” interviewed were not aware of this law. I can just hear the direct mail lobbyists and the USPS claiming how much more our mail will cost if direct mail is eliminated (and perhaps it would). But at least there might be awareness of a need for the registry among those willing to sign up.

    Greg H. on May 30th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

  15. I would like to raise another issue that is not commonly talked about regarding wasteful mail. True enough consumer choice is important - however, after the consumers indicates interest to recieve there is still the challenge of getting the catalog to the consumer when they move and getting all of the complex duplicates out of the mail (married/maiden names). 70% of all undeliverable mail is caused by an unidentified move. For more detail on this subject visit blog.cognitivedata.net.

    Rod Ford on May 31st, 2008 at 5:58 am

  16. I will do anything to try to reduce the volume of unwanted “junk” in my mailbox. I live in Hawaii where we are way behind the times and only started recycling 2 years ago. Paper is the largest polluter. So all those (heavy) catalogs float over here on barges, I collect boxes of them, haul them back to the recycle station and then they get driven to the port and barged back to the continent. I have tried calling companies directly w/. partial success so I welcome this service. If it cuts the volume by 50% it will be a big help. Now I want everyone in the 50th State to do the same. We’re drowning in garbage and junk mail and we need to stem the tide as best we can. This is a good place to start.

    Elizabeth S. on June 6th, 2008 at 1:35 am

  17. I have found that when I ask OptOut to intercede for me with merchants, I am only partially successfully.
    Victoria’s Secret is especially uncooperative. During the 2008 Calendar year, I have received five catalogs, all of which have been contacted by OptOut. Each time that happens, I keep receiving VS’ catalogs, but each successive catalog has a different account number. Their tactics seem to be to ignore me by infuriating me with a new account number, causing me to have to opt out again, and again, etc.
    Tomorrow I will call their customer service phone number and see what happens.

    Julia Johnson on June 8th, 2008 at 11:00 am
 

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