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Photo by Val Dodge/Torontoist.
When was the last time you opened the Yellow Pages? In a world of Google and Canada411, it's probably been a while since you've consulted any kind of phone book. When was the last time you saw someone take a phone book off that giant shrinkwrapped pile that eternally guards so many apartment building lobbies and grocery store entrances? It's probably been even longer.
With Internet access approaching ubiquity and easy access to any number of online directories and search engines quickly following, phone books seem to be a quaint relic of the past: treasured by some but unused by most. After all, you can find virtually everything in the phone book online without squinting to read tiny text, getting ink all over your hands, or storing a giant book near your desk for the rare occasion that you may need to use it. And not only that, but you get access to phone books from around the world without needing a trip to the reference library. By all accounts, the phone book should be well on its way to dying, if not long dead and buried already. So why do Toronto households receive as many as four different business directories now, each bigger than the last? In this world of business efficiency and environmental concerns, do we really need five kg of dead trees—not even counting the biennial residential phone book— distributed to every home and business in the city?
The Yellow Pages Group publishes the smallest (and arguably the most practical) book of the bunch, a svelte paperback-sized neighbourhood directory that includes complete business listings for all of your local merchants. It can be useful for finding a local plumber, getting the name of that repair shop a couple of blocks over, or looking up the phone number of your local cobbler. Internet directories are still rather hit-and-miss with that kind of fuzzy hyper-local information.
The others—Torstar's Goldbook, Canpages, and the city-wide Yellow Pages—are likely to sit unused in a forgotten corner of the house for a year if they're not thrown into the blue bin the same day they arrive. In apartment and office buildings, stacks of unclaimed phone books sit in the lobby, awaiting someone with a strong back to haul them around to the dumpster.
Why do we receive more and more directories even as we use them less and less? Gathering ads into big books and lobbing them onto people's verandas is an incredibly lucrative business: the Yellow Pages Income Fund recently reported its 2008 earnings of more than $500 million on $1.7 billion of revenue, a healthy profit margin of thirty percent. Most of the profit comes from the directory business (which includes income from the Yellow Pages' online properties and role as Google AdWords purveyor). Now just imagine how much more money they'd make if they didn't have to distribute all of those useless books. Of course, there's a downside to everything: without the Yellow Pages, how would the Serial Diners decide where to go next?
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Used mine yesterday... why wait for the computer to start up when the book is right there in the drawer?
You turn your computer off?
You don't? The avg computer uses as much power as leaving the lights on in 4-5 rooms. Leaving it on 24x7 seems kinda wasteful no?
I think there has been some overestimating of the obsolescence of the yellow pages.
In our household, we're trying to be a little eco-friendlier by not having the laptop running 24/7 (even on sleep mode). Sometimes we still grab the yellow pages, as it is easier than booting up the computer, or even than typing a search term onto a blackberry. Sometimes the old technology remains pretty effective at times, even if we now have alternatives.
And let's not forget that a lot of households do not have home computers, either by choice or due to socio-economic circumstances. Depending on the circles and the neighbourhoods in which one travels, a lot of people make take a phone book off that giant shrinkwrapped pile that eternally guards so many apartment building lobbies and grocery store entrances. Cell phone penetration is probably higher, and is bound to continue increasing, but not everyone has nifty smartphones or can afford the data plans.
I agree, however, that none of us need to receive more than one copy of the yellow pages. What a waste of trees.
Every time one of these is delivered, there winds up being about 8 books on the porch of my building to go with the 4 doorbells. I've actually tried getting the companies to come pick them up before - it takes about 15 phone calls and a month of waiting with the books out to get them to do this, plus I believe I had to tell them that there were 20 books there so they'd do it.
Then they have the nerve to tell me that they haven't had many pickup requests so obviously people like their product. (Nevermind that just tossing the book in the recycling takes about 15 times less effort than making them take responsibility).
I'm not condoning flyers, but couldn't they just send one around and make the books available on request? Or at the very least have an opt-out?
I tend to agree, but the problem is that the Yellow Pages (and the others) is really just a collection of ads, and the cost of an ad is largely determined by how many people 'get' these books. So, they don't want to go the 'available on request' route or give people a chance to 'opt out' because that lowers their 'readership rate' (at least as it appears by the number distributed).
When I go to my parents' house in Scarborough. There is no internet. There is no wifi. But they have tons of phone books which are a rich source of info because you don't want to drive aimlessly around looking for something. They also double as a booster seat for my 2 year old.
They are still used in the preferred method of proving one's manhood - how many can you rip in half?
Phone books are really useful in cleaning plates in the hand printed etching process. The texture of the paper is ideal when buffing an inked up plate. The only reason I've touched a phone book in a very long time is to rip the pages out and get them dirty.
I resent the pallets of phone books and Yellow Pages and local directories that sit in the lobby of my condo for two months in the same way I resent the endless flood of direct marketing junk mail that I get and the incessant telemarketing calls on my cell phone—I CAN'T STAND getting stuff I didn't ask for dumped at my doorstep for me to take care of.
The fact that about 90% of these phone books at my condo go untouched is also infuriating simply because of the waste. And when something like that is dumped, unrequested, on my private property, why is it up to me to dispose of it?
All direct/bulk marketing should be explicitly opt-in, and that should be law.
Agreed. Opt-in programs for phone books might be unnecessarily complicated, but the simple way would be to simply require the companies by law to pick up the remaining books within a week of dropping them off. I think you'd find the companies leaving 90% or so fewer books pretty quickly.
It's funny that ten or fifteen years ago, the idea of having your phone number, address and name published publicly in the white pages didn't strike most people as an invasion of privacy.
Because your name and address have always been publicly available and because you agree to having your phone number published.
Besides, we are talking about the Yellow Pages - the directory where you want your name, phone number and address to be made available.
It is weird. Maybe privacy is an invention... something specific to the modern 'liberal individual.' Who needs privacy when we can lie!?
How the hell has Hizzoner and his tax-anything-that-exists regime not jumped all over the impact these companies have on the Blue Bins?
I do love the neighbourhood ones, the other ones make great chew toys for my pet rabbits, they love tearing them apart and the dyes are non-toxic so its safe, the sort of paper they use also makes for great rolled up chew toys since its thin and you can get lots of layers in, I put them in kitty corner through the bars of one of their forts and they love tearing them apart, they're great bunny fun!
Because I haven't had a need for them for years, they always go straight into our recycling box. Inspired by this story, I called both the yellow pages people and bell to ask them to discontinue delivery of the directories. Both took my name, address, phone number and said they would do so.
So maybe it IS possible. We'll see if I continue to receive new directories this year.
Haha
You gave them your name, address and phone number. Next year they will know exactly where to ship a whole bunch. Their profit is driven by how much demand for their book and how many are printed and you just gave them a name to add to the want list and probably will receive more than usual junk mail from their partners.