Going Postal

I have a lot of Terry Pratchett books. Pride of place goes to my Grandmother's signed copy of Mort (2nd edition hardback - not for sale sorry). Most all others are 1st edition hardback (from book 4 in the series on through 25 or so). There are a number of reasons for that but most honestly its because of the fact that its just a good fun read. Nothing too serious and certainly nothing that will make Oprah's book of the month club. Even the newest one - Nation - while not his typical fair is somewhat humorous in places.

So back to Going Postal. It came to me yesterday (Christmas Eve Eve) when emptying the mail - who really uses the mail these days? Sure there has been the influx of Christmas cards (24 this year - a near record in recent years) and boxes from family abroad.

But yesterday... 1 flyer for some grocery store that is too far away to be worth the trek. And a card for the previous owner of the house. For crying out loud they moved out 3+ years ago. So either it was from someone who they don't care about or someone who even after all this time has failed to acknowledge the change of address.

Today was no better. A fly for some company or other (hint: if I want your services, I'll find you - the Internet does that for me) and a bill for car insurance. On Christmas Eve.

So, taking away the Christmas cards and parcels we have in the last few days:
* A flyer for a store I'm never going to
* A bill for something that really could just be on auto debit if they got their act together
* A while pile of other recycling.

At work, its much the same. In the 9 months at my current job I have received (give or take):
2 letters (both from IBM extolling their server range - no thanks)
1 Christmas Card (badly branded on the front - not hanging that up)
5 boxes (all of which I directly ordered)
1 flyer from an outsourcing company (ummm... no thanks... I have no idea who you are)

Does anyone write letters anymore? Is it a lost art? Has email really replaced it all in the last 15 years?

As an aside, DHL is going out of business in the US so the parcel service isn't going great. What does that bode for the future? Emailed gift cards all around, or the Amazon Parcel Delivery Service. Its certainly not looking good for the post office. In fact in the UK they say the post office loses about 5c for every letter it delivers. And putting up rates reduces the number of items delivered. Ye Olde Catch 22.

And yet, when doing business with most European companies, when you want a contract you get a 75-100 page tomb in the mail. Of all the things that could be sent via PDF/email that to me is the kicker. Its not personal. It doesn't need to be personal. And quite frankly it wastes a tree (or 4).

So it seems no one is going Postal anymore, and I shall just go back to getting a good read that doesn't make me think too much and at least manages to put a smile on my face.