Residents protest catalog deluge

Nancy Reyering and six other volunteers from Woodside and Portola Valley made a delivery to the Restoration Hardware store in Palo Alto last week that they hope might send a message to the home furnishings store's corporate headquarters.

Using two pickup trucks and four hand trucks, the volunteers returned nearly one ton of the catalogs the company recently shipped to local residents, protesting the waste the unwanted catalogs represent.

Via UPS, Restoration Hardware has been delivering to each home a bundle of as many as 13 large catalogs, wrapped in plastic and weighing up to 17 pounds.

With the catalog drop-off at the Palo Alto store, Ms. Reyering included a letter asking the corporation to "consider taking a stand as the first truly 'green' retailer by eliminating the printing and mailing of any catalogs."

Ms. Reyering who in 2013 was named an "Environmental Champion" by Woodside's Sustainability and Conservation Committee, wrote that "the most environmentally friendly approach, by far, is not to create and ship these unnecessary, unwanted, and wasteful catalogs."

She also has sent the company a spread sheet with the names of more than 120 people who want to be taken off Restoration Hardware's mailing list.

After the volunteers began bringing stacks of catalogs through the store's front entrance, store employees quickly asked the volunteers to move the rest of their delivery to the store's back door. At least four employees with handcarts immediately hustled the stacks of catalogs out of sight.

Employees handed out fliers with what appears to be the company's pre-printed response to complaints about the environmental effect of the catalog deliveries.

"Heavier load = lighter carbon footprint," the fliers say. "Our 13 source books now come to you just once a year, all together in one package. Combined with our carbon-neutral shipping practices and our responsibly sourced paper, that adds up to a significantly reduced impact on the environment."

Ms. Reyering and the other volunteers Peter Marsden, Lauren Mang, Erin Broderick and Seldy Nelson from Woodside and Brad Peyton and Laura Stec from Portola Valley were not buying the explanation.

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Residents protest catalog deluge