• Taohumor@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Jesus, some people are that much of a hoarder that there’s a market to sell your garbage to them.

  • Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    The Lorax said, Sir! You are crazy with greed. There is no one on earth who would buy that fool Thneed! But the very next minute I proved he was wrong. For, just at that minute, a chap came along, and he thought that the Thneed I had knitted was great. He happily bought it for three ninety-eight.

  • quicksand@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    I ran into my mail lady when I was getting my mail the other day. Turns out she had just tossed everything a few days before and started lecturing me on not letting my mailbox fill up.

    I went there to get a new card that Id been informed was sent a few days ago and asked her how it got so full.

    Then I saw all the junk mail she was shoving in and , not thinking, asked her if I could unsubscribe from all the obvious crap because mail is almost useless these days. She got a sad look on her face and I almost felt bad

    • Bonehead@kbin.social
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      3 months ago

      Flyers are a big part of our salary. We lose money every time someone asks to be put on the list. I don’t know how often you check your box, but some people on my route don’t check for months. I don’t give those people flyers once it fills up. But if you’re still getting mail and we have to clear out the flyers to make room, we do tend to get little annoyed.

      She should have simply asked if you like flyers
      You can not like flyers but still get flyers since you didn’t ask to be put on the list. We usually know which ones don’t like our don’t care about flyers. If you leave a note taped to the bottom of your box at the front so that we see our while we’re working, we’ll usually not give you flyers while also forgetting to report it when we get back to the office. There are lots of options that let us bend the rules. We’ll work with you if you give us a chance.

      Addressed ad mail is a different story. We legally have to deliver everything as addressed, even junk mail. Those you have to fight with whoever is sending you that crap.

      • DillyDaily@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Addressed marketing is the reason my letterbox gets so full.

        The previous 7 tenants of my unit haven’t updated their address (why would they? It’s just catalogues, newsletters and flyers, they’re not even enveloped, they just have an address label and stamp on the front page of the flyer) and they each get 3-4 “useless” letters per week. I’ve tried the “return to sender” and emailed the property agent asking if they can remind past tenants to update their addresses via email.

        I’ve lived here for almost 4 years, so I’m at the point where everything goes into the recycling bin despite that being illegal, the post office was just as sick as I was, showing up once a week for 2 years straight with 20 undeliverable rain damaged letters that they themselves just immediately destroyed.

        I always forget to check the mailbox because I’m not expecting any mail. Nothing in the box is ever for me, even when I got a new bank card delivered they hold it at the post office for me because that’s how I’ve got my mail set up. I get a text when I have mail to pick up. (and I’ll bring the stack of junk mail in my mailbox that aren’t for me to the post office when I go to get my mail, but if I don’t have a reason to go to the post office, sorry previous tenants, I’m sick of the 7 ALDI catalogues every week, they’re going in the shredder, and I’m willing to risk jail over it)

      • Aviandelight @mander.xyz
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        3 months ago

        If it makes you feel better I love junk flyers because it’s free bird cage liners for me. And the nicer quality the paper the easier it is to clean up after my birds. I’ve actually had friends save their junk mail for me.

        • Habahnow@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          USPS makes money from postage. Flyers require paid postage. If you indicate you don’t want to receive offers or flyers, that’s less money for the USPS.

            • phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
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              3 months ago

              Well Rs decided it needed to be run as a business but also “future proof” itself (unlike a business) by preparing money now for all future postmen as well. Conservatives also prevented usps from making a secure certified email service. Of course we also still have dejoy the dismantler at the helm.

            • jemikwa@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              3 months ago

              Mail volume is checked once a year for rebalancing mailboxes on routes among an office’s employees. The volume on a route during mail count also affects salary, even though it varies throughout the year. So yes, less spam mail does impact the post person, though it’d have to be on a much larger scale to be significant and occur during mail count season (spring time iirc). I doubt it’s specifically because of less postage being collected from less mail, but it does match proportionally how much mail a mail carrier delivers and how many units are on their route.

              Source: parent is a rural mail carrier

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      You can actually! You have to pay like $3 to unsubscribe from junk mail (ridiculous, right?), but you can! You have to unsubscribe from pre-screened credit cards separately. I did both a couple years ago and reclaimed my mailbox.

      For junk mail:

      https://dmachoice.org/

      For CC bullshit:

      https://consumer.ftc.gov/now-leaving?external_url=http%3A%2F%2Foptoutprescreen.com&back_url=https%3A%2F%2Fconsumer.ftc.gov%2Farticles%2Fhow-stop-junk-mail

      An article from the government about both:

      https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-stop-junk-mail

      • camr_on@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I unsubscribed from the junk mail I was getting just to realize that my mailman just puts the same junk into every box in my neighborhood without looking at the address, so I still get my neighbor’s junk mail lol

        • Baku@aussie.zone
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          3 months ago

          I know I’m going to sound like a bit of a dick, but where I am I just put a little sticker that says “no junk mail” on my letter box and then the junk mail stops. That’s more awesome imo

          • boogetyboo@aussie.zone
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            3 months ago

            Yeah I’m super confused that they have to pay to opt out. You in Australia! I also have the little sticker. Honour system at work maybe?

  • Scribbd@feddit.nl
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    3 months ago

    Must be a magical drawer to supply all those customers with random junk each month.

      • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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        3 months ago

        Honestly I could float 400 monthly customers for awhile.

        If a marble/ball, two batteries, a screwdriver, roll of tape, tooth picks, and a post-it note count as a box, I would happily get rid of some of the random junk I’ve accumulated over the years.

        Heck, if they want to pay a premium on shipping, I’ll include large items, and even kick in a few pieces of bonus trash items.

  • Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I think there are people out there who would sign up for just about any subscription you offered them purely out of FOMO.

  • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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    3 months ago

    Landfill filler as a subscription is one of the late stage capitalism business ideas I hate most.

    • Rolando@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I dunno… imagine the material is coming from stuff that is one step away from the landfill. Then what we’re doing is delaying the material from going straight into the landfill, and we’re giving it another chance of being useful. It’s the “reuse” part of “reduce, reuse, recycle.” Since people are actually paying for it, they have more of a motivation to find a use for it.

      • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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        3 months ago

        Before “reduce, reuse, recycle” there is “plan”.

        Subscription stuff boxes, the ones that make hand over fist, are the ones that count on customers forgetting they are subbed, the same as digital subscriptions.

        Except now the consequence is actual physical stuff showing up at your door without you having “planned” for it. Which will likely just end up… Existing without a point now. Which is the opposite of “reduce”. The three Rs go in order of importance. Recycle is the last for a reason, because it’s the least effective but better than nothing.

        If you want to sell a thing, just sell a thing. None of this subscription bs, which is really just way to vacuum up money from people being inefficient with their resources.

        • variants@possumpat.io
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          3 months ago

          It’s already made but people didn’t buy it so now they stuff it in a mystery box to try and sell it cheaper

          • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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            3 months ago

            Just sell it cheaper? Stuffing it in a mystery box to ship it all over is just kicking it down the road, but with a ton of shipping costs and carbon emissions.

            • variants@possumpat.io
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              3 months ago

              The first step is to try to sell it cheaper but when no one buys it they can toss it in a mystery box or toss it in the landfill.

              For example Bethesda keeps sending me these discount emails to but their game merch. Now they are doing mystery boxes. For the cost of a shirt you can get a random shirt and two random items from their franchises. They are basically writing off that stuff without it going straight to the dump

        • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          You had me until all that utterly stupid tripe about something not sitting in a landfill having an increasing carbon footprint… That is … just SO fucking dumb.

          A knickknack sitting on someones’ shelf is ABSOLUTELY NOT “increasing its carbon footprint”. The thing has already been created. The carbon footprint has long since been established, and it’s BETTER to rot on a shelf as a knickknack than literally rotting in a landfill.

          This is not a defense of the horrible practices of creating all the junk in the first place, just pushing back against the moronic hate on recycling.

          • Sentrovasi@kbin.social
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            3 months ago

            The point they are making is if it ends up in a landfill anyway, then you’ve wasted more energy/resources recycling it.

            If it stays on your shelf, that’s not what they’re talking about.

          • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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            3 months ago

            It’s in quotes because the “carbon footprint” is a bs metric to begin with.

            The point is that spending energy on something that won’t be used to do something useful, is spending energy on nothing, and therefore a waste of energy.

            It would have been better to send the material into a landfill sooner, because delaying it just cost more resources for no benefit.

  • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Oh shit! Is that a paperclip and a small orange ball?!?

    Of course those would go out the month after I cancel! 🤦🏻‍♂️