Restoration Hardware's 17-pound catalog lands with a thud

Restoration Hardwares gargantuan annual catalog, which set a record this year with a bundle of 13 sourcebooks totaling more than 3,300 pages and weighing 17 pounds, has critics on social media in an indignant tizzy.

People who got home to find the encyclopedia set for farm tables and distressed leather arm chairs on their doorsteps have taken to Twitter during the last week to call the catalog wasteful, appalling, hands down the most reckless/unnecessary marketing ploy ever and a risk for shoulder injuries from lugging it inside.

A tumblr.com page called Deforestation Hardware is organizing a mass return of the unwanted mailings Saturday to an RH Baby and Child store in Santa Monica. (To be fair, some people love the catalog.)

It seems almost quaint that just three years ago people felt similarly ecologically and philosophically affronted, if somewhat impressed, by the 2011 debut of Restoration Hardwares mega catalog, at the time a semi-annual affair numbering 616 pages and weighing a mere three pounds.

Industry analysts quoted in stories about the tome at the time reasoned people could be more likely to linger with and less likely to toss a beautifully photographed catalog that felt like a coffee table book. It has grown bigger every year since.

In a delivery confirmation email sent to recipients of the recent monster catalog -- which includes nine category books and four lifestyle books, though not everyone received all of them -- Restoration Hardware highlighted that the heavier load equates to a lighter carbon footprint, as they all come in one package just once a year.

Combined with our carbon-neutral shipping practices and our responsibly sourced paper, that adds up to a significantly reduced impact on the environment, the email said.

Restoration Hardware CEO Gary Friedman told analysts during an earnings call Wednesday afternoon that the negative comments on social media about the gigantic catalog represent one-tenth of 1 percent of the people who received them and that the mailings have generated even more business than expected. There have been slightly more people asking to opt-out of the mailings than last year, he said, but youd expect that because the book is twice as big.

No one has an offering remotely comparable, Friedman said. The catalogs are a physical manifestation that communicate the dominance and unique point of view of the brand in a way the retailer cant online, where all the Web store fronts look the same size, he said.

Despite steady and significant growth in online sales, paper catalogs remain important to business not just at Restoration Hardware but at other retailers that count on them to generate interest in their products and drive customers to their Web site and stores.

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Restoration Hardware's 17-pound catalog lands with a thud