For mail carriers, holidays weigh heavy
Catalog load grows as even the Internet shoppers want the glossies
MALDEN -- It's taking at least an hour longer than normal to get out the door these days at the central mail distribution center, where postal carriers, thigh-deep in holiday catalogs, sort and pack their loads before hitting the streets. Bundles stuffed with catalogs teeter on crates and carriages. Piles are stacked upon piles.
The sheer volume has even veteran employees shaking their heads.
Ed Kosta, 47, who walks much of his 234-house route in Melrose, delivered about 800 catalogs yesterday. ''People sometimes complain about all the catalogs they receive, but they will also question when they don't get their catalogs," he said.
The phenomenal growth of Internet shopping has not cut the volume of glossy ads, as many analysts once predicted. Quite the contrary. It turns out that online retailing and catalog mailing have developed a symbiotic relationship: A catalog in the mailbox often compels consumers to go to their computers, marketing specialists say.
''What companies have found over the years is that when they decrease catalog mailing, online traffic and sales go down, and when they increase the catalogs, online traffic and sales spike," said Amy Blankenship, spokeswoman for the Direct Marketing Association, a trade group representing companies that target consumers through catalogs, the Internet, and telephone pitches.
The number of catalogs mailed in the United States soared from 16.6 billion in 2002 to 18.1 billion in 2004, the association says. And even more are expected to be mailed this year. The association is projecting $133 billion in catalog purchases, including those made online, for 2005, up $7 billion from last year.
Mail carriers who are shouldering the holiday-laden loads say they are often winding up their routes after dark.
''Some people are getting 20 catalogs on the heavy days," said Richard Scott, 50, a Quincy carrier whose walking route through the city's center is 5 miles, ''not counting the driveways, stairs, and walkways." He said he is switching his mail satchel from shoulder to shoulder a lot lately to keep from throwing out his back. Kosta is parking his truck halfway up a block, delivering to about a dozen houses, then returning to refill his bag.
In Danvers, Debbie Callahan, a 25-year veteran, is smothering a lot more Arthritis Hot cream on her aching shoulders at the end of the day. And in Manchester-by-the-Sea, carrier Rick Marquis, 50, who started the job more than a year ago, is relying on a special elasticized shoulder strap to more evenly distribute his load. His boss found it -- where else? -- in a catalog.
Postal Service data indicate that ''handling and lifting" injuries peak in October and November, which also are the heaviest months for catalog mailings. (Catalog mailings fall off after Thanksgiving). Carriers are expected to be able to lift mail bags weighing up to 70 pounds, but are supposed to limit the weight in the shoulder satchels they use on door-to-door deliveries to 35 pounds. With heavier volumes of mail, carriers have to repeat the lifting more often.
To help ward off injuries, the service has been beefing up training at its carrier academy at its General Mail Facility in South Boston. ''We have become more sophisticated and learn from experience," said Bob Cannon, Postal Service spokesman for the Boston district.
John Casciano, local business agent for the National Association of Letter Carriers, said carriers bear heavy loads through January, after income tax return booklets go out.
''They aren't as heavy as the catalogs," he said. ''But it's a lot of mail volume."
Not that they're complaining. The more catalogs, the more business for the Postal Service. The agency made about $18 billion -- about a quarter of its total operating revenue -- last year from businesses that send catalogs and other advertising circulars.
''It pays our salaries," said Casciano, whose union represents 21,000 mail carriers in New England. Kosta and his fellow carriers in the Malden area get overtime pay at an average of $32 an hour for the longer rounds.
A study commissioned by the Postal Service last year found that consumers who received a catalog from a company from which they had not previously purchased were twice as likely to make an online purchase compared with those who did not receive that company's catalog.
But not everyone is sold on that.
''I stopped almost all my catalogs four years ago," said Kristen Gerety, 33, a Melrose mother of three young children who said she banned the bulky items from her doorstep to save the environment.
''I have four recycling bins in my yard already," she said. ''If I had all those catalogs, I couldn't even imagine how many more I would have."
Besides, she said, she has found that shopping the old-fashioned way -- in a store -- is cheaper.
Kay Lazar can be reached at klazar@globe.com 