Catalog Choice

December 29, 2007 8:06 PM

Catalog Choice: one-stop shop for opting out of catalogs you don't want to receive.
posted by alms (9 comments total)

Previously (on the green).
posted by misterbrandt at 9:18 PM on December 29, 2007

Huh. I always call the phone numbers on the catalog and say "stop with the catalogs" and they do. I guess this might be easier, but I am skeptical that they save me enough time that I think it's worth trusting them with my contact info. Not that this would be a very valuable spamlist - "Great, we can sent junk mail to the people who want it the least!"

I guess I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing.
posted by aubilenon at 10:33 PM on December 29, 2007

You know, there are some catalogs I would like to receive but no longer do, because they have stopped sending them:

J. Crew Fall Sale

Lehman Home Products

Vermont Country Store

Swiss Colony (never bought anything, but man! those boxes of salami and cheese and crackers looked well good)

Hammacher Schlemmer (Sky Mall just is not the same thing)

The Sharper Image (they have made a gigantic mistake firing that founder, but he made a huge mistake using the Sharper Image name to sell those fucking ridiculous air ionizers.)

Terrence Conran (When I was a kid, I used to pour over his catalogs. It's what made me even want to get into marketing.) (Follow-up: no one today does a very good catalog about home products because no one shows a house that anyone has actually ever lived in. Why was Terrence Conran ahead of his time? Because he took the pictures in his own house.) (Final note: NO! His son is a shitty follow-up.)

Campmor (especially 1994-1997, when it was on newsprint.)

Whole Earth Catalog (1983 especially.)

Cabela's (In 2000, I thought orange was the new black. I was mistaken but I still have a reverence for people who can wear my favorite color.)

The Phone Book
posted by parmanparman at 1:22 AM on December 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Here's a BusinessWeek article from last week about how many companies are just ignoring the request.

Favorite quote:

How much influence is Catalog Choice having on retailers' behavior? Hard to say—most wouldn't talk about it. Victoria's Secret Direct and J. Crew Group declined to comment, and Harry & David spokesman Bill Ihle said the retailer was too busy making sure "all of Santa's orders come through" to discuss the issue.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:56 AM on December 30, 2007

Campmor (especially 1994-1997, when it was on newsprint.)

parmanparman: it still is in newsprint.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:57 AM on December 30, 2007

"Whole Earth Catalog (1983 especially.)"

I have one from 1972 and still look at it.
posted by bjgeiger at 7:55 AM on December 30, 2007

Catalogchoice seems well-intentioned (and it's an impressively well designed ajax-based site), but unlikely to be effective. "We depend on the good faith of the merchants to honor these [do-not-mail] requests." Good luck with that.
posted by ook at 11:53 AM on December 31, 2007

Catalog Choice is now flagging in your account which catalogs are confirming and processing your request to be removed, those that refuse to honor your request, and lastly those that haven't not responded either way. Of my 18 catalogs listed, 2 are marked as "confirmed" (Lilly's Kids and LL Bean) and 1 is refused (Crutchfeld Electronics) with the rest unconfirmed. Just seeing the green "confirmed" label by a company's name (assuming they follow through) does give me a slight spike of increased good will towards the company name. I hope this new feature does more to further the power of Catalog Choice over the industry--as ook's link pointed out it may need.
posted by artifarce at 8:52 PM on January 24, 2008

Oh, and furthermore, CC makes it "easy" to follow up on the "refused" companies. Each red "refused" label links to customer service contact information.
posted by artifarce at 8:54 PM on January 24, 2008