20070910

The international scourge that is junk mail


Here's a photo of a local mailbox. The first sticker says "Please, no advertisements in this mailbox, thank you!" The second reads "No junk mail (I feel compelled to add please!) except for the latest Ikea catalog. The third sticker declares "Mail from Sweden? That's for me!" Ingvar Kamprad (who makes his domicile in CH) must be so happy! We have no such stickers on our box, mainly because I never remember to write such a note and carry it over when I fetch the mail.

I got the idea for this post from a blogger in Zürich who recently wrote about a piece of mail she received from the Swiss postal system asking her to reconsider her "no" stance.

20070909

10 comments:

Gerald (SK14) said...

A postman in the UK was sacked last year for handing out leaflets to his customers that told them how to avoid receiving junk mail!

Sometimes when I see the people who deliver advertising flyers coming up the drive I'll go to the door to meet them. I take the junk off them and put it straight into the paper-recycling bin. Some of them just shrug but some look aghast at my action.

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

:) now i'm tempted to d something similar!!!

alice said...

Many French mailboxes have stickers against junk mail (even the townhall gives us some nice green ones), but they are not very effective...My husband has been told by the man who has this job: "Everyone must try to earn his life"...What do you want to answer?
Z, I have not been visiting your blog for a while, a complicated home-coming and some grey ideas...Hope you aren't too angry.

claude said...

I must to put a sticker like that on my mailbox because everyday I find alot of papers that go always into the garbage.

Beetle said...

We have also such a sticker and it's not really working good,so for myself,I don't bother at all to get junk mails as I only need less than a minute to smash it into the bin :o)

Anonymous said...

HI

I use one of your picture at my cat-ladder photo blog. I hope it is ok? Of course i link to your site!

Here's the address to my blog:

http://katt-trappa.blogspot.com/

I LOVE CAT LADDERS!

Yours sincerely / Jimmy Robertson -
Stockholm/Sweden

Z said...

Gerald in Hyde: Was that really an illegal thing for the postman to do? He didn't have any legal recourse against being fired? Seems like rather harsh consequences.

Moi: Watch out that you don't get a fine assessed against you or some crazy thing like that!

Alice: I think the stickers here are effective, though what do I know? Your comment about the response of the delivery person is similar to that of those who are telemarketers. In the US I always tried to be polite to them. There was apparently a "3 no" rule where if the prospective customer declined at least three attempts, the caller had to desist. So I got into the habit of saying no thanks, no thanks, no thanks.

No need to apologize about not visiting -- of course I understand! I have spells like that as well.

Claude: Maybe Alice can tell you where to get some of her green stickers... maybe they'll work better for you?

Beetle: It might be the case that they're effective here because of our complicated paper recycling scheme where we get our paper picked up only 4x a year. It can put an undue hardship on people to have to store this stuff in their small apartments.

Jimmy: Appreciate it!

Gerald (SK14) said...

Here is the news article

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5294708.stm

Re yoour comment on Hyde DP about ice-cream at cinemas - it was always a tradition to sell ice-cream and chocolates in the intervals - but in those days there was always two films - the B-movie and the A-movie. Now with multiplex cinemas you only go to watch one film and buy popcorn and the like before you go in.

Unknown said...

I love to read Ikea catalogues! hehe...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for pointing that post out - just spent a happy five minutes over there