Clean up our act! 

The following is a perspective by Time Inc. vice president for postal and distribution Jim O'Brien. The views expressed are solely the author's.

 Last Saturday, I picked up our mail and was surprised to find three identical Hammacher Schlemmer catalogs in our mailbox.  Upon closer examination, I noticed that one was addressed to me and two to my wife.  Each catalog contained a different source code which is probably why their fulfillment system didn’t eliminate the multiple mailings.  Source code or not, given the price of paper, printing, and postage, multiple catalogs going to a single household has to be a tremendous profit drain for the mailer.  Fortunately, in our household we recycle all of our waste paper, so the extra catalogs did not have a significant negative impact upon the environment.  However, by sending multiple catalogs to the same household it DOES have a negative impact on consumers’ perception of our industry.  Plain and simple, the public thinks that we don’t have our act together.

The situation reached a new level of exposure a few years ago when the television show Seinfeld ran an episode where Kramer attempted to take all of his Pottery Barn catalogs back to the local outlet store.  Our industry was being poked fun at, and frankly, we deserved it.

Earlier this week, we received credit card applications for everyone in our family including my eight and ten year old sons.  We’re frequent fliers and evidently the credit card offer is being sent to everyone with a frequent flier number regardless of their age.  The funny thing about this is that when we book our travel, the airline’s website asks if any of the passengers are children and if so, the system requires us to provide their ages.  Clearly, somewhere in the airline’s vast computer system they have the ability to connect the dots and know that these kids really shouldn’t be sent credit card applications.

I’m a firm believer that mail is good for the American public and the overall economy.  At the same time, I also believe that if we’re not careful, we will wear out our welcome.  The last thing that either the mailing industry or the Postal Service needs at this time is to upset our most valuable customers by giving them excess mail.  Now is the time for our industry to be most diligent in our mailing practices and clean up our act!