On or about October 20th I started a little project. I started keeping all of the mail order catalogs we receive at our home. I kept adding to my pile through Dec 31st.

I have a final tally of my roughly 10 week accumulation of catalogs:

- Weight: 80 pounds
- Height: 2 feet

Maybe eCommerce will grow enough that someday this will not be arriving in droves. In the meantime, if you suffer from a similar deluge, I’d highly recommend visiting Catalog Choice and they can help you get the flow shutoff.

And finally, I wonder if I shouldn’t be rooting for eCommerce afterall. Chris Anderson (Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine) makes a very convincing argument that Dead Tree Magazines are actually better for the environment than running a website with the same content. Could the same be true of mail order catalogs versus eCommerce? Maybe instead of using Catalog Choice to opt-out of all these catalogs, I should email e-tailers that I frequent and tell them that due to climate concerns, I’ll no longer frequent their sites for shopping, but if they’re interested and able, I’d be happy to receive their printed catalog.

Posted by Jeremy at 9:05 AM
Category: Ecommerce| Comment| Trackback