Crass Commercialism and
Junk Mail Hall of Shame

Hey, guys, have a little respect! Paper is heavy! Shotgun direct marketing is invasive! My time is the most precious thing that I own. Dealing with unwanted mail is wasteful. Don't tell me to re-cycle it, that is a cop-out! Far better not to bother with it in the first place!
All of these businesses or institutions have ignored my requests to be removed from their mailings or else they simply shotgun stuff repeatedly to "our neighbor", etc, making it impossible to opt-out either way. In some cases, I have been trying to get off of their lists for nearly thirty years! This puts them all in my Junk Mail Hall of Shame.

Save time.. Save $$$.. Save trees.. Stop Junk Mail!!!!

Shame on you, Comcast, just how many pieces of junk mail do you intend to send me? Get a clue. If every firm did what you are doing, there would be no trees left!

Are you going to cause me to deal with BAGLOADS of clutter to haul out of the house as Shameful Safeway and Rite Aid have done over the past 30+ years?

And Shame on you, Office Max. We hate your phony plasticky "discount" cards. And then you have the nerve to tell US to FAX YOU to be removed from the onslaught of wasteful clutter.

Meier and Frank, Shame on you! I have decided to quit shopping in your store altogether. Even a very occasional small purchase brings on a rash of unwanted junk. In fact I will now avoid all May Stores. At least five or six times, I have wasted postage trying to get our name off of your extremely persistent list.

Bed, Bath & Beyond, you are one of those disrespectful, "in your face", mail-marketers who repeatedly sends stuff not addressed to me. This makes it ~impossible to opt-out. What a cheap shot.

Shame on you, US Postal Service, for your total disregard for my values and wishes. You enable and encourage these invasive and resource-squandering practices. Money no longer simply politely talks, it shouts us down, doesn't it?!

It is hard to add public institutions to the list, even as they become more "private" and therefore more commercialized. Three, though, I must include here with reluctance because they have turned a deaf ear to my concerns about wastefulness. First, Linn-Benton (Oregon) Community College! They have been shotgunning their ENTIRE schedule of classes to seemingly EVERYONE in the county, regardless of interest. They have been doing this for more than TWENTY YEARS. WHEW! What a pile of paper that is! I have complained repeatedly. They claim that it is CHEAPER to BULK mail their schedule in this totally SHOTGUN manner. I think that it is really "marketing" and therein lies the shame. I support public education, but it should never rely upon mass-marketing as a recruitment device for students.

And speaking of community colleges obtaining "body counts". Land surveyors in Oregon who want to participate in professional seminars that merely use facilities for just one single day at Rogue-Umpqua CC must FULLY REGISTER at the college and provide their ssn and date of birth. That is silly for such an event. This kind of information is thrown around a little too easily for my comfort.

However my second public "shame" is the City of Corvallis. They put out a very nice newsletter for citizens, which I really appreciate. I was content to read it faithfully on-line, but now they have REGRESSED and gone back to a shotgun paper format. Sad.

My third shame in the public arena is once again one that I have contacted repeatedly requesting that they cease mailing to our address. University of Oregon Alumni Office still mails stuff to us, even after several requests to remove a household alumni who is living permanently overseas and does not want any of their material. Again, probably at least a couple of bags full of paper after more than a decade. To say nothing of the stamps that I have wasted in over ten years.

page updated April 7, 2005