Editorial by Matt Marquardt –
Even as City Hall moves to clean up nuisance properties in Mason City, the Globe Gazette continues to litter the city with its Mason City Shopper publication.
A concerned citizen notified NorthIowaToday.com of the mess in a southeast neighborhood.
Driving through the area pointed out by the Mason City citizen, rotting Mason City Shoppers were found strewn about yards, sidewalks and streets. Several homes had as many as 10 or more Shoppers laying in bushes and in the wet, muddy grass, exposed as the snow has melted away.
Perhaps it is time the Globe Gazette pulls the plug on the Mason City Shopper. Judging from how people leave their Shoppers in the snow and grass and allow them to rot, disperse and blow about our streets, sidewalks and yards, the interest just isn’t there.
Take the hint, Globe, and stop littering our city with your un-read garbage.
why not simply drive by the GG and throw them back. Now that would be funny and a picture to post here.
Now that the snow has melted, I have found numerous useless shoppers in my yard, might just have to take you up on that suggestion.
The people who live next door to us have at least a one year supply of Shoppers in their yard and don’t care.
Oh, I care. It fact it ticks me off that they are all over the place.
PEOPLE ….PEOPLE….. these papers are lost soles. cant find their way home. please help them find their way back home to the globe gazette. anywhere on the GG lawn will be fine. thank you for helping them out
The real cost of dead tree media is just that- imagine how many healthy trees were felled and ground into that pulp- to say nothing of the junk mail you get also. These bloggers have a point, it’s litter, and quit dumping it on my property and causing me to choke the landfill with it. I don’t want it, I don’t read it, I don’t want to pay to throw it away, and I don’t condone the production of it at the cost of trees.
Totally agree with the majority of comments. I, too, have found quite a few Shoppers I didn’t even know had been delivered now that the snow has melted. Nothing more than a plastic-wrapped decomposing pile of trash by now. Wouldn’t bother me in the least if the Globe stopped printing it. Good observation, NIT.
Didn’t get one for 3 years now I get one different days of the week. Nothing in them why bother putting them out.
globe pays squat for us to deliver them, makes us pay for rubber bands and bags. after figuring in the cost of rubber bands and bags your talking 2 or 3 cents per shopper paid to the carrier.
when i started delivering them they had me going to addresses that were vacant lots or parking lots. also addresses that obviously didnt want the shopper and couldnt be bothered to call the globe to stop.
i’d chalk it up to apathy by the globe, the carrier and the customer.
If this is true, what a despicable way to run a business. To actually force their employees to purchase materials to do their own job, and pay them hardly anything. I’m glad you quit, you deserve better than to be a slave to the Glob. Meanwhile Howard Query gets to be the Band Fest King. What a joke this sad, pathetic group is who pretend to be leaders in this town.
Jesus christ everyone, just call the number and tell them not deliver anymore. ?….I did, and dont get it anymore. Bunch of pussies
Love it when they get jammed in my snow blower!!!!
For every shopper I throw out 4 more appear. What a waste. Now the snow is melted I found a dozen on my lawn.
I honestly dont see the point in the shoppers because the exact same ads that are in them are in the actual newspaper throughout the week and online.
Some people do not get the Globe.
Wouldn’t someone throwing a shopper on your lawn constitute littering in the legal sense? If someone threw a soda can or a fast food wrapper, it would be littering. Is there really a difference?
Then post an officer at Walmart to charge all those people who throw trash out there..and every other parking lot.
That’s private property and Walmart’s not complaining. Now you want to play cop on other peoples property.
No I dont…Matt complained about Walmart last week and told them they needed to clean up their act and property…even though most of the trash didnt come from them. In the Shoppers case..the homeowner/tenant has the trash, so using his argument from two weeks ago, the homeowner/tenant should clean up his or her property. I pick mine up and throw it away..its not to much for others to do the same. People need to start taking pride in their property and clean it up. If they have a particular issue with the Shopper, go th that office and talk to them.
No, a pop can is worth 5 cents…..
The delivery person just throws them in the yard. They’re useless. They are always wet, not readable, and can’t even put them in the recycling when they are sopping. Hate the shopper!
I was able to get the one stopped that they would throw on my lawn, but come to think of it, I do receive one in my mailbox once weekly; it is always thrown out without being looked at.
And in order to have them stop throwing on my lawn, it had a lot of resistance and it caused me a lot of aggravation; this was years ago in Nora Springs.
It’s just a money making avenue for the Globe at the expense of the public (not to mention the trees).
The shopper was once an independent publication owned by Ron Phelps. He was a tough competitor. The Globe bought him out so they could create a print monopoly.
Now it’s just a piece of junk mail. I think every Wednesday people should drop off their copies to Howard Queries house.
Cannot believe businesses still advertise in that rag. Most are thrown in the trash before they are delivered. The ones that do get delivered are thrown away before being read.
Best Uses for the Globe Gazette:
1. Fire starter
2. Fish wrap
3. Wrapping paper
4. House training puppies
5. Tape it to windows of a meth house to block incoming sunlight
6. Floormat for muddy shoes
That’s it…that is all the uses for the Glob.
Funniest post name ever….yea I get it Doctor Conrad Murray…mike jacksons “killer” doctor…love it.
Also add to uses for the shopper.
bbq fire starter
bedding for pet rodents
composte material
use for cleaning glass
tadaaa.
The shopper is simply junk mail, nothing more nothing less. The Globe uses it as a advertising medium for the menards, mc sports, and hyvees of the world. They tell them it goes out to over 7000 or more households what they dont tell them is it gets thrown in the garbage or in this case thrown onto the lawn or street. My shopper comes ever tuesday, and every tuesday i throw it in the garbage. It is a waste of newsprint.
I had the same problem a couple years ago. I called the Globe A LOT to tell them to quit dropping it off at my house. I saved up a box full, then called the man in charge of Shopper distribution at the Globe. I explained that if ONE MORE Shopper showed up on my doorstep/lawn, I would deliver my box of moldy, decomposed Shoppers to HIS home door. I never received a Shopper again.
I wish there were a way to elect out of receiving them. I never read them and it is such a waste of resources. Do they just throw them towards the front door in MC or what? Ours are in our mail boxes.
That’s illegal to put anything but US postal mail in your mailbox.
It goes in the newspaper compartment below the mail box.
I have to agree with Matt on this one. The street that I live on has the same trash in yards, driveways, sidewalks. A year or two ago, while walking through East Park, I saw bundles of shoppers thrown in the garbage cans in the park, good delivery system there. I will say though that it’s not the globes fault directly, it’s the people they have not delivering them, and still getting paid.