In the past month or so I’ve been receiving mail catalogs, but they were actually addressed to me (versus the generic ‘current resident’ junk). I realized that somewhere along the way someone must have gotten a hold of my address, but I really hadn’t given much thought to who the culprit was. I’d been collecting the mailings together so that I could call and get off of the stupid lists, but I hadn’t quite done it yet. Well, on Saturday I received yet another piece of mail and it was just the last straw. So I whipped out my cell phone and started calling places to make sure I had my name removed from any and all lists that they might have. Well, as I was making my phone calls, I noticed something interesting. All of my addresses were spelled exactly the same way, which rarely ever happens, since I live in an apartment and there are always all sorts of permutations on the apartment number. Well I quickly picked up a catalog from a company that I had ordered something from this spring. Bingo. The address was exactly the same as all of the unsolicited mail, and a quick call to the customer service line told me that in fact they do “rent” out your information if you order online.

First things first: you’re not renting my information, your selling it. Once I receive stupid junk mail from these retailers I will likely continue to receive stupid junk mail. So since this process is going to go on “forever” (unless I do something about it), that’s selling. They’re not going to stop renting my address after ninety days are they? That’s what I thought. You sell your customers’ information. But my bigger issue is, why would a company that touts itself for environmental awareness, through recycled paper and “green” powered stores, sell information to other companies that are going to spam their customers, especially their members, with tree-hating junk mail. I know that the short answer to that question is money, but that just seems extremely short-sighted. While I know that a lot of people do the “earthy” thing, because they think that it’s hip and trendy, I honestly believe that there are a growing number of people that care about the planet and are concerned about its sustainability. And if those are the people that you are truly targeting, not just the ones who will come and go with passing trends, then perhaps you should consider the message that you send to them when you allow other companies to flood their mailboxes. I don’t know exactly how we can make these companies accountable, but it does seem like something should be done, if only to let them know the concerns of their longstanding members, rather than letting this behavior continue unchecked.

Any thoughts?