Friday, August 26, 2011

Icelander postal carriers burdened by IKEA catalogs

The Icelandic postal service is under a major strain thanks to the new IKEA Catalogue.

The big catalog from the the Swedish furniture manufacturer is sent to every home -- all 118,000 of them.

The distribution is a considered a big event for the nation, and is the subject of news stories and coffee shop discussions.

The IKEA brand, which is just making U.S. inroads, spends 70 percent of its marketing budget on printing and mailing catalogues. They print more than 175 million copies annually worldwide.

The catalog is now 55 editions, in 27 languages for 36 countries.

You can have the the catalog sent to your home, and your carrier will thank you. Click here.

(From Benny -- Remember when we delivered scads of JC Penny, Sears, and Montgomery Ward catalogs?)

Care to comment?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember my 3rd day as a new RCA on a very large Rural Route. I had over 100 huge JC Penney catalogs and had them stacked in the back of my Explorer in delivery sequence when a deer jumped out in front of me. When I hit the brakes all the catalogs flew across the back of my car and out of order. I didn't know the route and had a terrible time trying to get all the catalogs back in order and delivered that day. Many of them went back to the PO and were delivered the next day. Everyone had told me I would probably cry in the first week as an RCA and that was my day to cry.

Anonymous said...

GO GREEN! I guess IKEA doesn't know anything about email or the internet.

Anonymous said...

Wow- email or internet?! That would be helpful to USPS how??

Anonymous said...

That's great they send out catalogs! I just ordered one. This will help the Postal Service. I always enjoy catalogs and it seems like most companies don't send them out anymore.

To the comment about email: there is a place to get emails from them, but why wouldn't you want to help out the Postal Service?

Anonymous said...

Ikea obviously knows the value of the mail! I think it's great that they send out actual catalogs. One to every address in Iceland? Imagine the revenue if we could get them to do that here!!

Grannybunny said...

I love catalogs; there is nothing on the Internet that even competes, in my book.

Anonymous said...

I really wished more of the companies would go back to the catalogs. I know I don't order as much when I have to look online. But give me a catalog and watch out!! Kudos to Ikea & Cabelas! The Go Green comment was obviously not from a dedicated Postal Employee!

Anonymous said...

I also just ordered a catalog. It helps to see what our adult children want for birthday and other presents. I have surprised them often with something they mentioned they liked in a catalog I had laying around. It was also like that when I was a kid around Christmas time.

Anonymous said...

IMHO...the REAL reason companies don't send out catalogs is not to "go green", but to save money on printing and postage. Catalogs are usually printed on paper that comes from trees grown in tree farms for just this reason. Besides, catalogs are biodegradeable, computers aren't!

Anonymous said...

I wish they would send one to each of my customers.Not email.