Yesterday I stopped by my mailbox and to my surprise there was a Yellow Pages book sitting there waiting for me.  I always ignore the stack of them that appears throughout the year by the mailboxes but this time it was actually insidet of my mailbox.  Seeing it sitting there and knowing that I actually had to take the phone book out of my mailbox made me stop and reflect for a minute.  I can’t remember the last time I looked in a phone book for anything.  It’s faster and I get more information from searching the web for whoever I’m trying to contact.

Usually I just sigh and walk by the stack of phone books wondering when they were going to figure out that it’s not aviable mode of providing information anymore.  But, this time I felt a little different.  I felt the same way as when someone opts me into their email list without my permission.  Before you call me crazy, understand that it is exactly the same.

When you get opted-in to an email list by a company and an email arrives in your inbox, you’re bothered by it.  Now I’m not talking about straight out spam from some foreign country that wants to give you a million dollars to help their son (though those types of spam count too).  I’m talking about when you meet someone, exchange business cards and they make the assumption to add you into their email list.  I know when this happens, and it happens often because of how much I travel, many times I’m bothered that they did it without at least asking me politely first (I would probably say yes, if they just asked).  The Yellow Page arriving in my mailbox is the same concept.  I don’t even have phone service and yet they opt me into being forced to receive this thick waste-of-paper in my mailbox.  Now I have to do something with it.  I have to take it out and throw it away.  The same way I have to go through the unsubscribe process when something I didn’t opt into arrives in my inbox.

The Yellow Pages book or the email that I don’t give express permission to receiving are seen as spam.

Now, I understand that the entire world doesn’t spend their life behind a screen like I do.  I know that there are still plenty of people that find value in receiving the Yellow Pages each time they’re issued.  I agree that it can be nice to have as a back up in the rare instance that all computers go down, the router blows a whole through my wall and I’m left without internet or phone to call GOOG411.  I think the Yellow Pages still have value.  But, they have value to those people that want or need them.

How many Yellow Pages do you think are wasted each year by those of us who just throw them away?  How much damage are we doing to our environment just by having thousands (if not more!) of Yellow Pages printed each year that just get tossed?

How do we fix this? The Yellow Pages should allow you to opt-in to receive the book.  It would be a lot better if they sent you a postcard that allowed you to check off a little box and send it back in telling them that you would like to receive a copy (ahem, permission).  They could even push you to a website where you could opt-in to receiving your copy.  Even if they found that it took a couple mailings of these postcards to get people to respond, it would still be far cheaper and way better for the environment then printing thousands of Yellow Pages that were going to be thrown away, each containing hundreds if not thousands of pages in each one.

I understand that they have to be able to tell the businesses that they get to buy ads in the Yellow Pages that it will reach a certain number of households that will generate a certain number of impressions.  Trust me, I get called every year at Caminito whether I want to buy advertising space.  But, that is really a disservice to the companies that don’t know any better and do buy ad space.  As a business owner I would rather a true number of households that are estimated to use the phone book with the price adjusted accordingly.  Even as someone that lives in the online world, I would consider buying ad space because I know it would reach a section of my potential customers that I may otherwise miss.  However, I won’t buy ads at the current rates because I don’t trust the numbers and for every person like me who throws out the phone book, I, as a business owner, lose money.

What are your thoughts?  Am I crazy about my thoughts regarding the phone book or do you agree with me, either as someone who receives them at their household or as a business owner who is pitched to buy ad space?  I’m curious to hear your thoughts….

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Photo by: Sabrina Tang