[Mpls] Junk Mail - A Minneapolis Problem?

[Christian Nielsen]

Personally, I hate SPAM, or junk email. It costs the send almost nothing, often contains things that would get the feds involved if it was sent via USPS, and costs us in time, energy, and bandwidth.

I grew up with old-fashioned "junk mail", and while I think it's a waste, it cost the sender something to send it: printing and postage at least. Also, I just realized there is another factor. With junk mail, the commercial stuff is pretty easy to spot and toss. Only on occasion are the hand-addresses letters that fool me into opening them. The sender does not realize that I make a note of these companies and would never purchase from them.

Email spam have few limits to their tricks to get me to open their messages, both with sender identification and subject line.

Note to email spammers: There is NO part of my body I need enlarged! I'm just fine.

And a note to telemarketers: If I purchase goods or services from your company, it's because you have not called me yet.

But I wanted to make a point about the partial list of mail house companies that were mentioned. These companies do NOT create the mail, for the most part. They are just the people that take the orders from their customers. So, to me, it's yet another area where the public needs to be educated. I would never buy from a email spammer, but I might from a junk mail sender...

In my opinion, these problems will go away when marketing companies start paying us for our attention. Would I open and scan a piece of junk mail for aluminum siding if I was paid $0.12? Yes. Would I go through a spam message on hair growth for a nickel? I think so. Telemarketers can pay me $0.75 to listen to their message at 9:45 pm and I'll listen to what they are offering.

Thanks,
Christian Nielsen
Nielsen Technical Services
www.river-towers.com

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