When I posted a couple days ago about the new website that allows you to opt out of phone book delivery, some commentors were wondering whether opting-out costs local phone book delivery people their jobs.
Well today I talked with Mr. Neg Norton, the president of the Yellow Pages Association which represents 158 phone book companies, and he explained that opting out is actually good for business.
“We have absolutely no interest in delivering directories to people who don’t want them. It just irritates the consumers, irritates the environmentalists and doesn’t do anything for our advertisers,” says Norton. “If we deliver a phone book to someone who just throws it out, it just increases our cost.” That surprised me, seeing as a study in Oregon showed that 80 percent of phone books wind up in the trash.
Even though there were so many people trying to opt out of the Yellow Pages that it overloaded the website’s servers on the day the site launched, Norton says he does not anticipate laying off any delivery people. “When you think about it, it actually makes their jobs more important and complicated. Now they have to go down a street and say okay, ‘This person gets no directories, this person gets two directories.'”
On the other hand, they’re only in favor of the population opting-out up to a certain point: Norton is adamantly against Oregon’s proposed law to make phone book delivery opt-in statewide. “We think that’s very anti-small business. Anything as dramatic as opt-in really hurts small businesses ability to market themselves,” says Norton.
I like how it’s “irritates the environmentalists” instead of “wastes tons of resources and kills the planet.”
Statewide opt-in is not “anti small business,” it’s anti YOUR EXACT dumb ass small business model.
If I have a small business raping puppies, and the legislature cracks down on for-profit puppy rape, I would sound about as ridiculous decrying my representatives as “anti-small business.”
In another parallel, 80% of our “business” ends up in the garbage.
@CC: Predatory payday loans were “small business,” too. Until those jerks in the legislature started regulating them!
@CC – Been there, done that.
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ss…
@CC Well, as long as it’s not ‘rape rape.’
I opted out but noticed the gay yellow pages wasn’t listed, does this mean that the gays hate the environment? How do I opt out of their yellow pages? I don’t want any of these things!
@ Sarah, nice try, but if you have them fixed first, it’s no longer “for breeding purposes.”
@ Reymont, unfortunately, “We Assure You: It’s Rape Rape!” is on all of our merch.