Phone Book Covers: Dying Business #273

Here’s one more business the internet will kill off.

I got an interesting sizable envelope in the mail this stretch. On the outside of the envelope was a stamp “NOTABLE”.

I opened the envelope to find a thin sheet of plastic with ads on it. I was confused as to what this was, until I read the accompanying letter.

“Enclosed is your complimentary phone book cover!”

Wow, it’s not every day that you get something for free. Especially something as useless as a phone book cover.

I honestly didn’t know such a product existed. But apparently phone book users like to use these covers to protect their phone books from coffee stains, food spills, and tears. Phone book covers slip nicely on the outside of a sizable metropolitan yellow pages and include ads for local businesses. The cover is the most expensive part of a phone book for ads, so advertisers on the plastic phone book cover usurp the directory firm and the big ambulance chasing law firm that inevitably advertises on the back cover.

Needless to say, my cover is heading straight to the trash. Just like my delivery of two big yellow pages each year. (OK, I live in Austin so I actually recycle the phone books. I don’t want hate mail for saying I throw these things into the trash.)

I know one person who still uses the phone book. She happens to be my mom.

These days most people get what they need online. Search: Austin Plumber. Search: Austin Barnes & Noble. Search: Austin auto mechanic.

So you can add phone book covers to your list of businesses the internet killed off. If you even knew this business existed.