When did junk mail inundations start? (family, college, father, kids)

[Hemlock140]

We have always gotten the junk mail selling new windows, roofs, tree service and lawn care. Also offering pre-approved loans and credit cards. At age 64 I started getting the medicare supplement junk mail, and in great volume. Now my wife is that age and is getting it too.

[don6170]

Originally Posted by pikabike

I was adult when spam started, but when did junk mail become so floodacious?

Junk mail was started by Lunsford Richardson, who invented Vick's VapoRub. Here is one article about it.
https://rockysmith.net/2013/07/13/th...-of-junk-mail/

[steiconi]

Junk mail is the bread and butter of the postal service since phone and email are so cheap/free.

I visited the home of a former US Postmaster General. He had several framed awards and citations from the Bulk Mail Advertisers of America (or similar groups).

We got catalogs for the previous owner of our house for 18 years after she was gone. They may still be coming there, but we sold the house.
We get a lot of junk mail for my SIL; hubster was her executor and had her mail forwarded, so we get more junk in her name than in ours. Especially embarrassing are the begging letters from the republican party; our politics are very different from hers.

[Charlie&Rose]

Originally Posted by WVREDLEG

What is a newspaper?

Still get the Sunday paper.....wait in the window until it is delivered. It takes two minutes to read. Old habits are hard to break.....but then there are the coupons

[semispherical]

Part of it is perception: the first class mail has decreased markedly since most people started using computers, so the junk mail makes up a larger proportion of the total mail you receive. I think it's the only thing that keeps the Post Office in business.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by semispherical

Part of it is perception: the first class mail has decreased markedly since most people started using computers, so the junk mail makes up a larger proportion of the total mail you receive. I think it's the only thing that keeps the Post Office in business.

Junk mail subsidizes the first class mail we actually use. Without all that useless stuff in my mailbox, a first class stamp would cost a couple of bucks.

If you want the junk mail to stop, permanently forward your mail to a PO box. All the junk mailers subscribe to permanent forwarding notification and that junk mail will start going directly to the PO box without the yellow stick-on forwarding that only applies to first class mail. After a year, the forwarding order will expire and the mail you care about will magically start appearing in your mailbox and you can cancel the PO box. It's a huge PITA to have to go to the post office for a year to collect your mail and toss the junk mail in the recycling bin but that's how you make it go away.

If you move, you want to adopt that same strategy. Permanently forward all your mail to a PO box. Only notify the businesses you care about about your address change. All that junk will go to the PO box.

[slowlane3]

Comcast is absolutely the worst. They literally sent us advertisements almost every day for several years. Um, if we haven't responded to your first few hundred ad's, can't you take a hint and stop? How many million trees had to be cut down to produce all the friggin paper?

[tatanka01]

Of the six deliveries a week from the USPS, I'd guess one is empty (no mail at all) and one might have something of substance (and I'll include Costco mail and the AARP rag in the "substance" category). The rest is all junk.

[twins4lynn]

I hate junk mail. I walk from the mailbox to the outside paper recycle garbage can and dump the crap before bringing mail into the house.

[homelessinseattle]

It makes great fire starter.
Plus if you have enemies you can fill out the forms in their name and address and spam them.