Seattle Residents Have Canceled 225,000 Yellow Pages In Only Two Months

[CreekDog]

from Consumerist:

Even though the Seattle city council announced it would be creating an opt-out registry for residents who don't want the Yellow Pages delivered anymore last October, the registry didn't go live until May. But in the short period of time since that launch, the response has been overwhelming.

According to SeattlePI.com, more than 35,000 homes and businesses have opted out of phone book delivery. That adds up to 225,000 copies of the doorstop/relic.

This news comes on the heels of a court decision against one phone book publisher, who had filed suit against the city for creating the opt-out directory after it set up its own nationwide opt-out website.

The phone book folks had argued that the city was violating their First Amendment right by "directing publishers what to publish and to whom they may communicate, and from assessing fees for the privilege of publishing."

http://consumerist.com/2011/06/seattle-residents-have-canceled-225000-yellow-pages-in-only-two-months.html

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Aside from the waste aspect, what bothers me is that there was a lawsuit by the phone book makers designed to prevent people from refusing delivery of phone books. That's wrong. It also bothers me that some want to force me to accept phone book deliveries so theirs can continue. I get several of these per year and I don't want any of them --they go straight to the recycling bin, where they cost money and energy to transport and recycle after leaving my house (where they weren't wanted in the first place).

[RKP5637]

1. Same here. I haven't used one in years and they keep dropping them off. What

a colossal waste.

[TheWraith]

2. It's the advertising.

Phone books are still lucrative for their manufacturers because they're a venue for advertising that goes into every single home they can get at. Even if the value of each ad is tiny, for a small business to be included, when you multiply that by all the businesses covered, it gets big. The companies involved don't want to stop delivering them to everyone, because if they were only delivered to people who want them, it would expose how few people even look at the phone book anymore.

[CreekDog]

3. but the revenue is a fiction and once everyone knows that --the business will fail

the revenue is generated on the premise that the book is used in X number of households.

but few want them. and now few even have them in the household.

i won't be sorry for those who currently make money by saying i use their book in my house when i have never wanted it in my house.

[TheWraith]

8. The revenue isn't a fiction, the value to the advertiser is.

The company which makes and distributes the phone books is certainly making money off of it. Do the companies which advertise in it get anything in return? Doubtful, or if they do, it's not very much. But the illusion is profitable to the company which makes the books.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

9. You hit the nail on the head. This will spell the end of the yellow pages publishers.

And they know it.

They'll no longer be able to sell the idea these books are in x million homes.

[SoCalDem]

7. The phone book problem in a nutshell

Younger people who grew up using computers & cell phones see NO USE for phone books.. Why waste time looking for the damned thing & then looking up the number when you can find it instantly online?

and the people who WOULD use the phone book and who grew up using them, are now at the stage of life where the damned print is too small to read easily, so they can't use the books easily:)

phone books are just another anachronism

People often do not even list their phones numbers anymore, and most companies (even small ones) have an internet presence:)

[RKP5637]

12. Also, one of the great things about looking up businesses online is one can

often find reviews/complaints, etc.

[Matariki]

4. Screw their lawsuit for. They should be fined for multiple litter violations.

[Romulox]

5. Sick of trash being dropped off on my porch/mailbox.

That's what it feels like. I don't want the phonebooks. I don't want the junk mail. And I don't want @$%#@$@ US Today!

Feels like garbage left on my doorstep, day after day...

[Gormy Cuss]

6. I don't mind getting ONE Yellow Pages from a phone company, but the rest of them are just junk mail.

I do think that even for the phone company with a verifiable business relationship customers should have the ability to opt out because many people just don't use them anymore.

[hfojvt]

10. How does 35,000 become 225,000?

people get 6 books per household?

I still use mine. I used it just yesterday to look up the phone number of my eye doctor. I'd hate to rely on google for that kind of stuff. I prefer to reach for a reference book just like I use my desk dictionary or the Oxford Companion to SCOTUS to look things up instead of the web to do so.

[Lisa0825]

11. "homes and businesses". Some businesses may be large and

used to get multiple copies. My ex and I used to deliver phone books for extra $$. We used to go into large companies with a pallet jack and deliver them to several floors of large buildings.

[CreekDog]

14. i get about 4 different ones each year

i'm not a business. my neighbors get the same ones.

they are mostly left untouched until i recycle them.

[Donnachaidh]

13. of course, the real losers in this pissing match are the folks who were delivering the books

In this economy, it may have just been the added income to keep them in their homes, or their kids fed.

But hey -- who the hell cares, as long as Seattle can fight with yellow page publishers..... Those delivery.folks.don't.count.right? :sarcasm:

:eyes:

[CreekDog]

15. so you're saying i don't care about employees because i want phone book delivery waste to stop?

really?

you get your milk delivered, right? i mean unless you don't care about the people who would do those jobs.

[Donnachaidh]

16. actually, yes I am.

In this economy there are people who are struggling to keep themselves in their homes. So you don't want a phone book -- those folks have one less avenue to keep their heads above water. This is a piddly pissing contest by those who aren't suffering.


Try a more recent analogy than milk delivery :rofl: Like this century :sarcasm:

[pipi_k]

18. Hah...good point... I'll have to remember that...

when huckster salesmen show up at my door selling vinyl siding, driveway resurfacing, magazines, knives, vacuum cleaners, and other assorted trash.

Those poor bastards probably have families to support, so it's imperative that we all buy their crap so they won't be living on the streets.

It's our obligation as Americans to accept or buy shit we don't want so a couple of million other Americans don't sink into the pits of poverty...

:patriot:



Ummm...unless they're Republicans. Then we don't care. Right?

Yay!!!

:fistbump:

[CreekDog]

20. so you are saying i don't care about employees

i'm not going to argue with someone of such little intelligence.

:hi:

[RebelOne]

17. There are no milk deliveries anymore.

I have not seen a milkman since the '60s.

[pipi_k]

19. Not true...

Look here...

http://www.oberweis.com/web/default.asp

Maybe not as much as in the past, but some companies still do deliver milk to people's homes.

[demigoddess]

21. In the seattle area Smith Brothers still delivers once a week

We have been enjoying their milk every day.

[CreekDog]

22. and do you blame the people who stopped their milk deliveries for job losses?

that's the equivalent here.

the other poster is blaming me/accusing me of not caring about people's jobs because i don't want the phone book forced on me or anyone else who does not want one.

i don't like milk either. if there were still milk deliveries available, should i have it delivered to my house so that people have work?

:shrug: