January 03, 2006
Catalog hell

In the past, I had limited my online purchases to smallish items, ordered from Amazon or one or two other retailers who did not share their mailing lists with anybody. Consequently, I seldom received any catalogs from other merchants pushing their stuff.

However, when I moved into this place three months ago, I needed a lot of furniture and housewares in a short period of time, and the internet (with its home delivery) seemed to be the way to go. I ordered stuff from three different companies (Pottery Barn, Target, and Home Decorators Collection; the last two were through Amazon.com's affiliate program) as well as a living room set through furniture.com, with whom I had dealt before without incident. Somebody sold my address to the catalog pimps, because I have been bombarded with catalogs ever since that time. At first, it wasn't too bad; a couple of catalogs a week, with stuff that was vaguely interesting to me. However, today I received no fewer than seven catalogs, including two that I can never see myself ordering from; they were country and Victorian styles, and my design aesthetic is not either style. (Those links are the stuff that is my style.)

Why don't the wizards who sell my information do a better job of screening it? It's bad enough that they shared it with ANYONE, but at least limit it to stuff I might actually buy. C'mon, flowered curtains and lace doilies? Toile and black walnut? Urgh.

posted on January 03, 2006 06:32 PM



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