I realize there are economies of scale in printing but some of the a thick stock, glossy, 10-30 page Pottery Barn type catalogs I get must have cost the sender $2-$5 each to make and mail. Also, heavy, inch thick fat 300 page catalogs from Uline (shipping boxes and tape etc) fascinate me. All my orders from them have been online. Every single one. Sierra Trading Post all my orders are online but I keep getting the catalog booklet every month. Why send this? You’re just burning money!
I use the Uline catalog pages for packing my ebay shipments so I don’t mind it so much, but the amount of money being flushed down the toilet here is amazing.
I bought a gift certificate from a vestments company (like, priest and minister clothes) some 5 years ago or so when my friend was ordained. I bought it online, and had the gift card sent to me so I could give it to her in a card.
I’ve gotten the company’s extremely thick and extremely glossy catalog every year since and the worst part is my friend died 2 years ago so it’s a super sad thing to get in my mailbox.
But yeah, it probably costs them at least $5 if not more to send it to me! You would think since I 1. only purchased a gift card 2. online 3. and haven’t bought anything since that I would be a bad candidate to spend money on!
Actually this thread reminded me to go to their site and ask to be removed. Hopefully that works!
I also make all of my mail-order purchases online. But excepting the things I get from Amazon and ebay, the inspiration for those purchases are print catalogs. For example, I buy about 30% of my clothes online. I almost never browse a retail clothing site just for the hell of it, but I will flip through a catalog I get in the mail, then go to their site to make the purchase. Browsing a catalog takes mere minutes. Opening and closing a bunch of pages on retail sites can take a lot longer.
I’m sure lots of people shop this way, and the companies sending the catalogs know this. Astro, how would Sierra Trading Post know that you don’t look at the catalog and get the idea to purchase from it?
Catalogs might be a waste from an environmental standpoint, but I doubt that they are money down the drain from a sales perspective.