Blog
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Category: Rant and Rave, Table Talk
Posted: February 24, 2012 11:10 AM
Tags: Vine Street Pub, phone books, free beer, beer
Rant & Rave: Phone Books and Free Beer
Rant: Phone books
Weeks ago, a stack of a dozen colossal, inches-thick phone books showed up in the lobby of my apartment building. The tomes seemed archaic and out of place. I can't remember the last time I was at a loss for a phone number or the closest Chinese take-out joint, and turned to a clunky paper book instead of my iPhone or computer. I've long assumed, as a society, we moved on.
The phone books have gone untouched, which validates my thinking. But I am annoyed that no one—including me—in my seven-unit apartment building wanted one of these pieces of, well, litter. I wondered who put the phone books there? The phone company? They can't afford to be bothered with phone books, can they? How much do they cost to print? How many trees are chopped down in the process?
I keep telling myself I should just toss the phone books in the recycling bin. But maybe if they're in the same exact spot at the time of the next phantom phone-book delivery it might send a message: Stop printing phone books, whoever you are.
Rave: Free beer
I walked into Vine Street Pub on a recent weekend in search of a table for six. The place was packed and the wait was 40 minutes. But the hostess had good news: Free beer! Yup, that's right, free beer for anyone waiting for a table (taster-size glasses, not full pints). I was shocked they were offering, but, of course, happy to partake. It was a day or two later that I realized the genius of their plan: I was still thinking about their no-cost suds and had long forgotten I waited 40 minutes for a table. Nicely done, Vine Street. I'll be seeing you again soon.
phone books are like Google
phone books are like Google — you are the product; it's hard to make them go away because they are selling you to the advertisers; you'll have to do more than just complain about them, but actively resist them; most phone books have information about how to request not to get next year's book, otherwise try the website; perhaps your article could have detailed how you had made that request, and whether it stopped the next year's delivery?
if you bother doing that footwork, your request will probably be honored for Dex books (as in your picture)—these are produced under contract to the telephone company, and are about as reputable as telephone directory publishers get; smaller companies producing "local" phone books may or may not respect your request; after all the only way they can convince the advertisers to buy ads in their directory is by claiming that everyone gets (and uses) the phone book; plus, the distribution part of the phone book biz is grueling seasonal piecework; it is contracted to people who are about as poor and desperate as you can get and still own a pickup truck; these workers will often find it just slows them down to pay attention to the do-not-deliver lists ...
(i speak from nearly two decades years off and on in the phone book biz, watching its (too slow) decline)