I remember having a paper route, very briefly, when I was about 10 years old. Started the job in the winter, snow up to my hips. Lasted all of 8 weeks before I got fed up with the cold and with the cheap-ass people who would hide in their living rooms and turn off the tv when you came to collect.
I can’t remember how much it paid - it seemed like good money back then, but then again I was ten years old.
Anybody else ever deliver newspapers door to door?
How long did you do it?
Did you like the job?
Do you remember what you got paid?
I did it for a few weeks when I was 9. Then I couldn’t handle it (it was a huge route) so I called the guy to quit and he told me I couldn’t!! I actually thought I would have to do it forever. My folks cleared that up for me. (Man, was I scared!!)
Over a year, Sunday papers only. The highlight was the old guy on my route who’d tell me stories about what it was like to be my age at the turn of the 20th century. Eventually I rearranged my route so he’d be last, and I could hang out and listen longer.
That ended when I got a second job at the local newspaper, folding the Sunday papers. So, my routine was to get up at 3:30 am, deliver the Providence Journal for a couple of hours, then hitchhike 17 miles into Westerly to fold the Sun for a couple of hours.
I did that for a few months. I was about fifteen at the time. I made maybe twenty bucks every Sunday.
I did it for at least a year when I was about 12 or 13. My older brother had the route and when he gave it up I wanted to take it on but the newspaper wouldn’t let me have it my own name, because I was a girl. So my younger brother and I split it. Bicycle, wagon sometimes when there was too much snow, and Mom took us in the car on Sunday mornings. Six days a week, rain or shine, and we managed to get the papers on the porch, not somewhere in the vicinity of the yard.
I delivered the Erie Daily Times for about 3 years, when I was 13-16 years old. IIRC, I got about 8¢/paper on weekdays and about 30¢/ on Sundays, and my route was about 45-50 subscribers. Pretty decent money for a kid in the mid-1980s - most of it was spend on baseball cards, greens fees, and cassette tapes. I didn’t have much trouble with the cheap ass people DMark mentions because I would cut off deliveries after the first couple excuses; since we weren’t technically employees of the paper, they couldn’t require us to keep delivering to deadbeats.
Yep. Everyday for over 4 years. Took over my sister’s route cause she hated it. You were supposed to be 12, but I was a few months shy. Lasted until I got a “real” job at 16. I had ~70 papers to deliver and made about $125 every 2 weeks. Really good money for a kid, plus I didn’t have to collect! The paper billed them directly.
Couple of good stories about some lovely ladies not expecting anyone to be walking up their sidewalk at that hour, and them being dressed (or undressed) accordingly.
Actually, a couple of horrific stories about some not so lovely ladies as well. Forget I mentioned it. I don’t want to end up in therapy.
I helped my friend Gordon deliver The Globe And Mail (Toronto) in a little town 80 miles from where it was published. This would have been when I was about 9. It was cool to get up at 4:30 and ride all over town when there was not another soul around. Gordon’s dad welded together a newspaper-sized basket for the front of his bike, which was pretty cool.
Then when I was 11 I delivered TV Guides when they were still 15 cents. I had to send in 11 cents on each one, and I must have had 40 or 50 customers. When the price went up to a quarter, they all quit.
About this time, my best friend Mark used to deliver the Hamilton Spectator, an evening paper, and I used to help him sometimes, but that seemed more like drudgery to the both of us.
Delivered the Chandler Arizonan for a couple of years at about ages 11-12. It only came out about 4 days a week so it wasn’t too bad. Except Wednesdays when they were stuffed with ad circulars and I couldn’t carry them on my bike. Plus I didn’t have to get up early to deliver it. I didn’t make squat though. Maybe $20 a month.
I delivered the local free paper to every house on a very large and hilly route for a few years for cigarette money, I probably started when I was about 10. The money for the back breaking papers wasn’t much good, however delivering the paper entitled me to also have first option on delivering catalogues and fliers etc that paid better and were much lighter and didn’t need to go to so many houses as we obeyed no junk mail signage for those. The other advantage was that unlike the paper nobody expected the junk mail at a specific time so I could just do a little at a time instead of the whole large route at once.
When I reached 15 and could legally do other work I worked in a milk bar (corner shop) for cigarettes, much easier and I got them at wholesale prices.
I have no idea of what my parents thought I was doing, I know I didn’t tell them about the jobs in case they wanted to know where the money went.
I still do, at the age of sixteen. The pay’s not too bad, about $135 a month. Enough for me to pay for Model United Nations conferences when they come up, which is all that matters.
Everyday after school I have to deliver, as well as in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays for over a year now. As for liking it…I’d rather be working in a bookstore somewhere.
In the 70’s did the Sunday paper for a couple of months but it was way too much work for not enough money. Then I got the local weekly which was light and easy. The best part was in the summer I collected in a halter top and all the Dad’s suddenly wanted to pay, and I got great tips
Not exactly the same thing, but close; I sold the Space City News on a streetcorner one summer. It was (IIRC, and I might be wrong) 50¢ and I had to give the paper 25¢ each. It seems like I made $8-10/day, which was enough for a teenager to live on 33 years ago.
But it was hot and generally a drag. An occasional stoplight flirtation (some teenage girls will say amazing things when they know they’ll be forever out of your life in less than a minute) and a few snarly exchanges (it was a political rag).
I finally decided the paper was too full of b.s. for me to keep selling it, and moved on to indoor work.
When I was about 8, I used to follow the paper boy around and pick up all the local newspapers that he left on peoples doorsteps. Then I would go door to door and sell them back to the people that were already subscribers. This racket lasted a total of one day because my mom found out and made me go back and give everyone their money back. One of the “patrons” on my route insisted that I keep the money because he was impressed with my ingenuity. Needless to say, but my parents were not nearly as impressed.
I delivered The Maui News in Lahaina when I was 12 or 13. I put saddlebaskets on my bike and loaded all the papers on it. Don’t remember how much I was paid.
Delivered the Tacoma New Tribune for about a year. Afternoons Monday through Saturday and Sunday morning. Collecting was the only part I didn’t like. Those that made my life difficult usually found a little something extra in their newspaper. I was given $100 to let someone else have the route and about 2 weeks later the Saturday edition change to morning paper. I had a whole year of Saturday afternoons ruined because I had to deliver the paper. Missed Thanksgiving that year too, the family went to Grandma’s and I got a TV dinner.
Delivered them for more years than I care to remember. It was the afternoon paper (The Phoenix Gazette) except on Sundays when it was the morning paper. Quite honestly, I don’t remember how much I made. I always had enough money to pay the newspaper what I owed them, had money for savings and my limited spending, and didn’t care much beyond that about keeping perfect records. If I had to guess, it was probably about 20-30 dollars a week.
The thing that got to me after a while was the fact that it was every stinkin’ day. You never got a day off and if you wanted to do anything during that time frame, you had to get a substitute (and usually pay them a lot more than you made for that day). And don’t get me started about the Sunday paper. Expecially right before Christmas. Even if you could cram all of the papers in the baskets on the back and the bags on the handlebars (and you usually couldn’t) you could hardly pedal the thing because it was so loaded down.
Oh, yeah. Collecting. I’m not sure what was worse - trying to get a customer half a dozen times when no one was home or having to go back 3-4 times when they told you “I don’t have any money right now. Come back later.” Of course, the same people who told you to come back a bunch of times were always the most indiginant when told that they owed for several weeks when they finally did admit to having some money. But I loved collecting aound Christmas. The tips were cool.
I had dreams for years after. They usually involved having a bicycle full of papers and not remembering the route.
A friend of mine had a paper route when I was about 9 or 10. For about 3-4 years, I used to help him deliver now and then for a candy bar or bottle of pop. Yeah, I was cheap and easy back then! The route was about 1.5-2 miles long, all uphill - really. We did it on our bikes, and the ride home coasting down the hill was a blast!
Delivered the Nashua, NH Telegraph for several years in middle and high school. Made some decent money, I guess; I was pretty consistent with the delivery times and put the papers in people’s doors. Actually won a bike from the paper because I’d expanded my route the most. Money was good - I always paid off the bill and had decent spending cash.
But yeah, it was a pain in the ass. Extra editions, crappy weather, roughneck kids on one street who slashed my bike tires, egged me once, and generally made my life hell. I wouldn’t do it again even for the money I make now.
