Make It Stop

A more correct post title would have been Make Them Stop. 

This refers to the many annoyances we get on our phones and in the postal mail—by names such as spam, scam and junk mail and this post doesn't even include email spam.

Many people, including other bloggers, have commented that they receive way too many catalogs, phone calls or other unwanted and unsolicited mailings. In a recent post on her Accidentally Aging blog, Latane, showed an extreme example of a catalog mailing received recently and asked if anything similar had happened to anyone else.

Assorted catalogs (Internet source)

Several bloggers responded in their comments about receiving too many catalogs and other solicitations.

Make It Stop has become a common thread plea.

In response to Latane's post, my comment was that (fingers crossed) we hardly get any catalogs
delivered. In fact, I can't recall the last time one was in our mailbox, even at holiday time.

That could be since we don't order through any. It may sound hard impossible to believe, but it's true. We either buy directly in stores and, now, online (a lot). In the past, we've received catalogs from places we shopped at and from places we've never shopped. As recent as last year, we were getting catalogs addressed to the former tenant who hasn't lived here in 7 years and apparently did a lot of catalog shopping.

We don't get catalogs as I Make It Stop; Grenville would just recycle them. That doesn't work for me. It's extra effort to go to recycling on another floor, but more so, a big waste of paper.

Here's what works for me, calling customer service (CS) listed in the catalog and explaining (politely, of course) that we do not want the catalog, asking that our name and address not be provided to other companies (many times that's what happens). The usual response is to that catalogs are preprinted, so a few more may come. My always polite response is these will be recycled until they stop. (I've heard/read about how some yell/scream at CS reps. There really is no need. After all, it's a job and sometimes not a pleasant one.) 

Of course, this can be time-consuming, if you get a lot of them. The alternative is to keep tossing them out. Many online sites give tips on how to stop junk mail, but I've never tried any of them.

Unlike now, there was a time when catalogs were not only welcomed, but looked forward to in the mailbox. It was how folks ordered everything for their home, for some including the home.

The two most popular catalog giants were Sears Roebuck & Company and Montgomery Ward. While Sears may have been the better-known catalog, but it was not the first.

1895 Montgomery Ward

In 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward, a traveling dry goods salesman, started the first general purpose mail-order catalog company focused on rural customers in the Midwest. 

Ward had observed that rural customers wanted city goods. Their only access was through rural retailers with little competition and no guarantee of quality. Ward believed he could cut costs and make a wide variety of goods available to these customers, who could purchase goods by mail and pick them up at the closest train station.

Ward and two partners raised $1,600, and issued the first catalog in August 1872. The 8×12 in. single-sheet price list had 163 items for sale with order instructions. In 1883, the company's catalog was 240 pages and 10,000 items. The company faced mail order competition when Richard Sears introduced his first general catalog in 1893. 

Sample products in 1934 Montgomery Ward catalog (Internet sources)

By 1900, Montgomery Ward had total sales of $8.7 million vs. $10 million for Sears. By 1904, Montgomery Ward mailed 3 million catalogs, weighing 4 pounds each. In 1985, after 113 years, the company closed its catalog business.

1897 Sears Roebuck & Co.

Sears, Roebuck and Company made its name with hefty, jam-packed catalogs that advertised everything from underwear to house kits. Early Sears catalogs were labeled as the Cheapest Supply House on Earth or the Book of Bargains. By 1894, the catalog had 322 pages. 

The Sears catalogue contained more than 500 pages of merchandise by the late 1890s. Rural Americans could now purchase hundreds of different items like shoes, clothing, women's garments, wagons, fishing tackle, furniture, china, musical instruments, bicycles, firearms, groceries too — all by mail.

Through its catalog, Sears was able to reach out to the 70 percent of Americans who lived in the rural U.S. at the end of the nineteenth century. Many of whom were said to have thought that the Bible and the Sears catalog were the only books they read. In some cases, that might have been true.

At its peak, it offered over 100,000 items in 1,400 pages and weighed 4 pounds (like the MW one). In 1933, Sears created the annual Wish Book catalog, that youngsters drooled over at holiday time. That became its official name in 1968. Sears discontinued its general catalog in 1993.

Sample products in 1897 Sears, Roebuck & Company catalog (Internet sources)

People could buy a complete house from the Sears catalog. These house kits were popular and came with assembly instructions. Parts didn't come in the mail, but were delivered by railroad. Sears is estimated to have sold 70,000-75,000 home kits from 1908-1940. Kits came in 447 different designs, from the grand Magnolia ($5,140 to $5,972) to the more popular Winona ($744 to $1,998). Sears advertised the kits promising that We will furnish all the material to build this house design. Parts arrived precut, ready to assemble.

Sears Catalog Home Kits

If you want to learn more about Sears homes, a favorite podcast, 99% Invisible (Episode 323) featured The House That Came in the Mail. It's a fascinating listen which you can hear online by clicking the highlighted link or you can read it on the podcast website.

1963 J.C. Penney

Late to the catalog game was retailer J.C. Penney (after James Cash Penney) which issued its first catalog in 1963. It developed into a massive 1,000-page big book catalog before being discontinued in 2009. The company announced that the discontinuation was in keeping with its ongoing commitment to promote the sustainability of forests and other natural resources. 

Five years later in 2015, the company reversed position stating that research showed customers liked to browse a traditional print piece (or look book) at home before going into a store or ordering online. 

The catalog succumbed to the digital age, as did the company. It filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 after 118 years in business as one of the premier shopping avenues for America's middle class.

Make it Stop — Junk Mail

Is your mailbox filled with junk mail  Numerous online sites advise how to stop junk mail, too many to list. Search online and you will find them. Whether or not they will help isn't guaranteed.

Pile of junk mail (Internet source)

I read a statistic that in the U.S. alone, we receive up to 90 billion pieces of advertising mail. It's not called junk from the postal system's view. The average household gets 40 pounds annually which accounts for about 60 percent of all mail Americans get. According to the USPS only half is read, some 4 million tons of paper are tossed out —a lot of waste every year.

Many of us have received $ requests from charitable, historical or other organizations. Once you donate to an organization, you get a thanks plus a request for another donation. It's happened to us as well, not so much anymore.

Here's why. For the past several years, we've contributed mostly to local organizations. letter is always sent with the donation stating that it be used for whatever purpose needed and that we do not want to receive an acknowledgment or further contact, and no request(s) for further donations during the year. We also ask that our information not be provided to others. 

There's also includes a condition that if these requests are not respected, a future donation would be reconsidered. Our home address is blocked out on the check (using a black marker). A friend told me this was OK, a check with our local bank confirmed that. This works for us as to date we haven't received another donation request from over 12 organizations, so we will contribute to all again this year. 

Make It Stop—Spam Calls

We've all had them, many are automated robocalls. You know the ones that usually come
around meal times. Did you know that spam calls fall into several main categories?

• Telemarketers: someone is trying to sell something from a legally registered business. 
• Legal robocalls: automated calls for notifications, services, or sometimes bills. Some can be from medical offices to confirm appointments or schools making announcements.
• Illegal robocalls: prerecorded messages you didn’t sign up to receive and includes calls like an expiring auto-warranty or a student-loan.
• Scam calls: when a person calls to defraud; includes car-warranty, kidnapping scams and fake IRS calls.

And, like for junk mail, many online articles advise how to stop or at least limit these calls. One popularly recommended step is to add your number(s) to the FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry, which could help reduce these calls. It won't stop every scammer or legitimate robocalls, but could provide some help. Many cell phone companies offer a free spam-blocking app as well. 

Cell phones also have call blocking apps available, some free; others at a cost. There's other ways without using an app. I don't know about Androids, but iPhone has a feature to Silence Unknown Callers. This avoids calls from people I don’t know by blocking phone numbers I've never been in contact with and who aren't in my contacts list. Silencing unknown callers could silence some that are important, but not in my contacts. If that's so, a voicemail can be left.

Unfortunately, the effort to Make It Stop unwanted calls and mail can be exhausting. However, if it means that we get fewer annoying calls and unwanted mail, I'll continue and possibly save some trees. And, the methods described in this post are my own. I do not use any online resources or apps. Others may have differing approaches. These work for us.

As noted by a fellow blogger, I didn't include spam emails and spam blog comments as that would have really made the post longer, perhaps in a future post.

Quickly on blog comment spam, I don't monitor comments, but review daily as often as possible. Obvious spam (or suspicious) comments are first marked as spam, then deleted. Maybe over the long term this has some effect as several annoying spammers have not been here in quite awhile. Other bloggers may know to whom I refer as many of us were slammed repeatedly.

Ready, Get Set, Go

As soon as possible to your local U.S. post office or any other place you buy first class postage stamps.

Why the rush?

In case you haven't heard, it's because currently in the U.S. the cost of a first class postage stamp is 55 cents, but in less then two weeks on Sunday, August 29, that same stamp will cost 58 cents — a 5.5 percent increase. This is the second USPS postage rate increase in 2021 since a January 24 increase of 1.8 percent overall that raised rates for the additional ounce on first-class postage, metered mail, certified mail, postcards. Priority mail services increased 3.5 percent overall for flat-rate envelopes and boxes.

A first-class stamp covers the price of a one-ounce first-class letter. While the current 20 cents charge for an additional ounce costs won't change, which increased 5 cents in Jan 2021. 

There's a way to avoid the increase

Stock up now on First-Class® Mail Forever stamps. The Forever in the stamp's name means that even after the August price increase, a single stamp bought for paid 55 cents will still send a one-ounce letter to any U.S. address without needing more postage. Plus, if you have any Forever stamps stashed away, you can still use them until your supply runs out. 

Forever stamps, introduced in 2007, always equal the current price of a first-class stamp. An original First-Class® Forever stamp purchased then for 41 cents or any in following years are still OK to mail a first-class letter with no added postage. Since 2011, nearly all U.S. first-class stamps sold have been Forever stamps.

Forever stamps also can be used for outbound international letters, but still may need more postage to get to the correct amount. There are Forever stamps for international letters, so if, like myself, you send international letters, you might want to stock up on a few of these before Aug 29 — that cost is going up too and more than the U.S. increase. For example, a first-class letter sent to a UK friend will go from $1.20 to $1.30 — Yikes! That's a 10 cent increase so, yes, I've stocked up on some of those, ahead of pre-increase time, as well.

Here's some overall highlights of what you can expect with the August 29 USPS increase.

• First Class Mail Letter (1 oz.) rises from 55 cents to 58 cents 
• Each added ounce for First Class Mail remains at 20 cents (no change)
• Metered letters would rises from 51 cents to 53 cents
• Domestic postcards rises from 36 cents to 40 cents
• Outbound international letters rises from $1.20 to $1.30
• One-ounce flats rises from $1 to $1.16

According to the USPS, this rate increase impacts Market Dominant products, services, like First Class Mail letters, postcards and mailing services. It doesn't include Competitive products, like First Class Package Service or Priority Mail. Of course, this could change in the future.

Where's the blame fall?

Convenience seems to be the culprit. Widespread use of email for bill paying, online ordering, correspondence, and the increasing shift to online banking have all affected the USPS bottom line. Folks are buying fewer stamps for letters and bill paying and even sending greetings online. Businesses have determined that customers can be reached faster and with less costs by email instead of through mailings via the postal system. Of course, while this may reduce junk mail, there's also the risk of increased  spam and junk mail in your online mailbox.

The USPS generally receives no taxpayer money for operating expenses. According to a May 28 statement, the proposed postage price hikes are a first step in a plan to reverse a projected $160 billion in operating losses over the next decade.

The Post Office Department was created in 1792 with the passage of the Postal Service Act. It was elevated to a cabinet-level department in 1872, and in 1970 was transformed by the Postal Reorganization Act into the United States Postal Service as an independent agency, a government-business hybrid that has received no taxpayer monies for operating expenses since 1982 but remains subject to congressional oversight. 

In a 2020 report, the Universal Postal Union ranked the postal services of 170 countries. The top five countries were Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Japan, followed by France, U.S., UK, Canada, Singapore. India Post is considered the largest postal system in the world. The most expensive place to mail a letter is Norway along with Denmark, Finland, Switzerland. While mail services are cheaper in some countries like Peru, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malta the cost of postage has to be weighed against the economy. 

What I'll be doing 

Personally, I'm still  sending postage required (snail-mail) letters and cards which are generally enjoyed by recipients. I'll also mail holiday cards again this year, although the list will be re-checked (like Santa's) and most likely undergo cutbacks. Extra stamps were bought after the 2020 holiday to prepare for this holiday season. Yes,  I expect to buy a few more before Aug 29 arrives.

And, here's a surprise gift thought — if you know someone who likes to send letter/cards and perhaps is on a limited budget, send them postage stamps in your next card or letter.

Will the USPS postal increases affect your correspondence?