Spare a thought for the flyer stuffers
Cats: Uncategorized|We were the unsung heros of the newspaper business.
True, the flyer stuffers weren’t the glamorous reporters or the fearless photographers with their notebooks and zoom lenses.
We weren’t the pressroom boyz or the advertising teams. And we weren’t the paper carriers who got the paper to everyone’s front step each morning.
No, we were the flyer stuffers, the people who stuffed the papers with Woolco flyers so you would know what was one sale on $1.44 day. Think about that.
During high school, we’d trudge into the back of the old Herald building for our 11pm shift on Friday night and start stuffing. And we’d stuff and stuff and stuff, tens of thousands of newspapers, eyes burning, stupid with fatigue, legs aching by the end of the night.
But there was a certain pride in it.
The job’s gone now, replaced by a machine. And the old building where the presses ran and the flyers were stuffed will soon be demolished.
No one really knew or cared about what we did, but we had fun doing it.
So the next time you pick up a newspaper flyer, spare a thought.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Salute to these unsung heroes. I know, I used to read meters for the electric company, and no matter what the weather was, those meters got read. The days of hiking through three feet of snow all day tend to stick with you.
Doc
September 5th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Well I suppose I can’t blame you for flyer stuffing, although I have always seen it as a huge waste of paper and ink. At least you are not portraying the romantic notion of spraying DDT back in the day.
What has been the environmental cost of producing reams of unwanted flyers?
Perhaps I’m wrong, but my flyers go straight from the paper to the bin.
Then again, I don’t read half of the paper either.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Flyer stuffers are newspaper gold and really, the paper do owe them a lot. The San Francisco Chronicle relies heavily on the Sunday fliers (with an “i,” as in “iFlyer”) and one department store probably would’ve gone under without the Wednesday supplement. Personaly, I couldn’t stand the job of folding papers when I helped out a friend on his paper route, so even more power to them for such a job.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Doc, meter reading is right up there with flyer stuffing, except we flyer stuffers didn’t have dogs chasing after us
Dick, I’m burdened now, and I will live with that burden for the rest of my life.
Thank you Cormac, my flyer stuffing ego has been restore to it past glory
September 6th, 2008 at 9:27 am
I was a flyer stuffer for about five years or so growing up. We had 133 papers to dealiver, twice a week and on average about 15 flyers to stuff. I think that’s why I have a bad back now.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:05 am
I will certainly think of you next time I throw the NYT inserts into the trash bin at my subway stop.
September 6th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
It’s gratifying to know that I can aim my hatred at a machine now, instead of some poor underpaid schmuck.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Allison, really? Wow! I don’t feel nearly as isolated in my flyer stuffing toil
CP, thank you, that is the sort of thought I crave.
Barbara, your hatred is now complete and guilty-free.