2008 was an amazing year for Catalog Choice. We started the year battling a widespread boycott of our service, encouraged by the Direct Marketing Association. We ended the year with almost 400 merchants under license, guaranteeing the suppression of over six million catalogs to almost 1.1 million households. To top it off, the DMA launched a service that mimics Catalog Choice in many ways – including the name (dmachoice.org).
In 2008, our first full year of operation, here is what we accomplished:
- Secured the participation of over 400 companies in our secure online merchant service. See Cool Catalogs for the list of all the participating catalog titles.
- Delivered and confirmed over 6 million mail preference requests to merchants.
- Preserved over 250,000 trees per year in collaboration with participating merchants and our members’ requests.
- Introduced the concept of mail frequency, which allows merchants to offer less frequent mailings rather than none at all.
- Received endorsement from the American Catalog Mailers Association.
- Provided our service free of charge to consumers and merchants, thanks to the generous support of our funders.
- Gained recognition in the mail industry as the leading independent mail preference service.
- Facilitated the most active conversation on the topic of mail preference on the Internet on our blog. Our blog includes over 100 postings and over 1,400 comments.
- Built the most effective team of merchant account managers. We all owe thanks to April, Jen, Paul, Syd and Christine for the endless hours they spend on the phone with merchants in order to get your requests honored.
- Created secure online accounts for over 1 million households to manage their catalog mail preferences.
- Developed the rules that govern your mail preference request through months of negotiations with leading catalog mailers (Williams-Sonoma, LL Bean, Crate & Barrel). The rules are the foundation of the license agreement that participating merchants sign with Catalog Choice.
Over the year, we learned a tremendous amount about what is needed to make our mail preference service work for both consumers and merchants. We are translating this knowledge into exciting new features for the coming year.
We are grateful for the on-going support of so many of our members, both consumers and merchants – we could not have accomplished a fraction of this list without your participation and support. To all our consumer and merchant members, we wish you a happy and healthy new year.
Congratulations! Great work! We all appreciate it. I also hope you will get caught up on the suggestions that have been coming in on other catalog merchants to add to the service. I know I alone have nominated several dozen that have yet to appear (some of which have sent multiple catalogs since first being nominated). In any event, may 2009 be as successful as 2008 was.
The Vermont Country Store has not honored my multiple requests to be removed from their mailing lists. I originally requested back in Jan. 2008 via Catalog Choice for them to stop sending us their catalog. Not long after that I got a letter and form from them asking me if I really wanted to do that. I sent it back with a “Yes”. For several months their catalogs stopped coming. Then they started coming again in May, September, October, and another arrived today. Each time I’ve gone back into Catalog Choice and asked them to stop, I’ve then followed up each time with a letter and attached the mailing label from their catalog but they keep coming. What part of “NO” doesn’t this company understand? I’m very sorry we ever purchased anything from The Vermont Country Store in the past!
I am almost giddy about the fact that, with the help from Catalog Choice along with my stubborn persistence on the phone and through email over the past 14 months, I finally seem to have stemmed the tide of unnecessary tree-carcass produced catalogs!!! The true test was this holiday season…. I just cannot believe it!
I do, however, wish to cite a couple of catalogs that WILL NOT stop…even after repeated calls to supervisors etc., and ask anyone reading this to boycott them if you already are not doing so…They are Get Organized (part of the Taylor Gift Co), Southwest Indian Foundation (great non-profit, but they won’t stop!!!) I know there are a couple more, but these are the only ones I have received recently, so I will add more if needed.
Thank you to Catalog Choice for your diligence and for provided the framework to keep track of all of the information.
Happy New Year!
Sandra, I have sent 4 letters and opted out via CC.org for Southwest Indian Foundation (which I love but have to get removed) in the past few months. Maybe some day they will honor our wishes. Hopefully 2009 will allow us consumers to pick and chose what we want in our households. Best wishes CC.org and hope promises for next year are prosperus for all!
Yvonne, Thanks for the info and the hopeful intentions! It is always so interesting to see how difficult it is with some companies and how easy with others….sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to the process!
Gosh…..I am glad there are other’s having trouble with Southwest Indian Foundation! I have tried on this site and even called and emailed to be removed but no response and the catalogs keep coming. They are like a virus! Anyone have any suggestions on how to get them to listen? Thanks.
Congratulations on a successful year Catalog Choice, and thank you so much for your help in 2008! Thanks to your help and support, I had MANY days in November and December where I RECEIVED NO CATALOGS AT ALL!! In 2006 and 2007 I received AT LEAST 2 a day in both of these months, and most days I received at least 4 or 5. Happy New Year to all at CC.org and to your families, and keep up the GREAT work!!
I have spread the word about the great things your website has done for me. I cannot tell you how nice it was in December to receive almost NO catalogs compared to the 100+ in seasons past. Thanks again for your efforts and keep up the good work!
Thank you so much for your efforts to make our world a better place to live! I first read about your site in “Real Simple”…a great magazine. Once I tried it, and it worked,I emailed your site to everyone at my work and my friends/family. The only catalog I am still really struggling with is “Anthropologie”. They just don’t get it! :) Happy New Year and keep up the great work!
I’d really love to know what those of you who are reporting success are doing. I suspect that your calls to merchants have far more impact than CC. I have been participating for more than a year and have seen zero reduction in catalogues. Particularly frustrating is to keep getting those that are listed as “cool catalogues” because they supposedly comply. I can report that they don’t, some just keep sending anyway and some just keep changing the customer number. I haven’t recommended this site to anyone because it’s so time consuming and with no return. And speaking of time consuming, why is the site so slow? I really wish this could work and I feel like I’ve put in so much time already that I hate to give up on it.
Nancy: I input the bulk of my catalog ills after I saw the Today Show airing of CC.org last January. It took weeks because I could only spend an hour or so a day. Yes, during that time I also did call, write and went State Attorney General on some of those that just would not quit. Many of those are the larger companies with several different catalogs. CC.org is talking to them and my catalog receipts are a lot less than last year. Mainly, CC.org has really listened to us and makes it a point to really work with those persistent buggers.
I’m not going to give up on CC.org because now I spend a whole lot more time with my family vs writing or calling catalog companies. They have heard my soap box stances too many times……. Please give them time. It took DMA years and years to market our mail info profusely and CC.org has done good in the short time they’ve been in business to get the attention of USPS and major catalog companies to listen to us and our wants.
I have only called 3 companies, all of whom were non-participants in CC. Although a few of the “Confirmed” companies continue to send me catalogs, they are sending fewer than before. I report them each time. Often they stopped for a while, then restarted. I just keep reporting them. I would say my catalog junk has been reduced by at least 80-85%. If it’s not working for you, we must just be receiving a totally different set of catalogs. For me, it’s been great.
Thanks to CC and also, in particular, to LL Bean, from whom I received a letter promising to honor my wishes. I will visit their website regularly!
You can be credited with reducing my incoming catalogs by at least 60%.
What a relief. Thank you for your good work.
What a difference you have made for me and my son (whose job it is to get the mail). I was getting up to 3 duplicates of several catalogs and it has almost completeley stopped. Although we recycle, it is far better to reduce consumption and CC has really helped with that!!
I so wanted Catalog Choice to work, but after more than a year I’m seeing no lessening of catalogs. Some just change my name in some way and keep sending, but others are apparently just ignoring my requests. Your site is so slow and cumbersome and takes so much time to navigate, that I am losing interest considering the poor results. Wish it weren’s so – you have a great idea.
Joan, I’m not in attack mode at you, Who’s continuing to mail you stuff? A year ago, I thought it would never quit but some still hang on and whenever I have blogged the culprits, CC.org has done some talkin’. Yeah, some companies do change our names to protect their innocence. Here’s some of my scores: out of 520 entries, 215 confirmed, 266 unconfirmed, 39 non participating(and they may have their own suppressing methods). In January 2009, my 12″x2″ mail box is really looking good, just bills, and a few local locos, and Blair. Not bad, not bad. It’s Happy New Year for hubby and me with unwanted catalogs!
The only problem I have is that some merchants who I might like to occasionally patronize refuse to NOT re-start sending catalogs after a purchase. Not honoring a simple request (which does save them money) equals no future business.
Im with those who questions whether CC is worth it at all. I joined in the fall of 2007 and was diligent for almost a year, with little noticeable difference. Then I started calling the catalogs and going to their sites to unsubscribe, as using the Direct Mail Association site (www.dmaconsumers.org). These activities have been much more effective.
I had to laugh the other day when Land’s End, a company I have never shopped with, and who I listed on Catalog Choice in December 2007, and continued to update, as well as call and write letters, FINALLY sent me a letter yesterday saying they had received my CC opt out and were honoring my request. THey are still listed on CC as not participating! Get it together!
Sorry, this is the DMA website. You can simply opt out of all catalogs.
http://www.dmachoice.org/
I had been receiving about 100 catalogs and I finally decided to devote about a day entering my desire to have them cease into your program..now I find that some simply continue to send them and while using my name they add “or current resident”..Pottery Barn, J.Jill, Neiman Marcus, Sundance, Urban Outfitters..to name some recent ones.
In trying to stop what I considered to be an endless stream of solitication mail, I called Charter Communications and was told by them that when they use “or current resident” there is no way I can stop them from sending this mail. Is it time to contact our Congressional Representatives and seek legislation providing some protection from this waste? Would like to know if you have given this some thought.
One very positive experience for me was with LL Bean. They wrote me a very nice letter wherein they acknowledged their intention to comply with my wishes and simply suggested that I use their web site. I have very happily taken their suggestion.