Fight menus-under-doors with DANGER stickers
Fred sez,
Link (Thanks, Fred!)
Menu littering is a huge problem in New York City. The increasingly competitive takeout and delivery industry hires their delivery guys during off hours to foist menus under the doors of apartment dwellers. It is now routine to come home to a pile of duplicate menus on my door mat -- not only annoying but a total waste of paper. Moreover, buildings routinely get fined by the city's department of sanitation if the menus are left near the front door of the building.After a failed attempt by City Council member Simcha Felder to pass legislation banning the practice and suggesting a $50 fine, I've decided to start promoting my own solution: a simple bumper sticker that uses a helpful diagram to warn trespassers that fingers will be crushed if menus are put under the door. This has actually made a huge difference in reducing the number of menus arriving at my house.
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This is an excellent idea. I don't have the flier problem in my neighborhood but I will certainly remember that warning sticker for my friends.
In Australia, they employ a simple solution.
You put up a NO JUNK/UNSOLICITED MAIL sign.
I put one on my mail box and BAM, no more Junkmail.
What a crazy idea.
it's a great idea, but the spanish translation is not correct. try with "menús no", that would suffice. in any case, translation seems not to be necesary for this case.
The translation into Spanish is terrible: "Peligro: ningunos menús" ??
Why on earth do people still think that is OK to use Google translations for this kind of things ???
Get a Spanish speaker to do the translation, please, cannot be that difficult in NYC ....
By the way: "Peligro: no queremos menús" sounds way better ....
Yeah, great idea. Training people who work in pretty low, unregulated industry to (eventually) ignore hazard signs is a GREAT idea.
Why not just actually install a finger-crushing mechanism?
Cute, but it would be interesting to see if a simple "No menus please" would work just as well.
Yeah, I think unless you actually make it crush the fingers, the sticker won't work for long.
NYC has a wonderful assortment of restaurants that deliver round the clock. I would happily step over a large pile of menus every day to get that at my house in Denver.
Why would your fingers ever need to go under the door to do this anyway?
I have a sign on my front door which says, "no menus, flyers or circulars, please." It is routinely ignored, and I come home to piles of unwanted paper. The worst are door hangers. You have to rip those buggers off before you can open your door. Grrrrrrr!
I feel so bad for yuppies who view the convenience of having a takeout menu delivered to their home to be the biggest problem they face each day. Try moving to a poor neighborhood where the takeout people won't even deliver to your apartment, you pompous, self-absorbed pampered windbag.
with Fred's alarmist and insensitive thinking, unintelligible graphics, and proto-racist inclusion of incorrect Spanish in fine print, this item's sure to be a big seller for Bush fans everywhere. Felder's proposal was smart for the big abusers like grocery stores, but it makes no sense to waste our time on the c. 50 menus a NYC home gets per year - aim for the big catalogues and yellow pages which are far more destructive.
I agree with CHUCK (post #8): You live in one of the biggest, most densely populated cities in the world! You should be thrilled that you can order any type of cuisine and have it delivered to your apartment! What's the point in living in the Big Apple if not the ridiculously wide variety of food available? I appreciate a good snark as much as the next smartass, but is sticking a bright yellow sign on your door really preferable than some litter on your mat?
For the me the annoying aspect of the menus is less the fact I need to pick them up as the manner in which the menu guys get access to the building. They ring all the doorbells at once and then claim to be making a delivery.
Basically what this sticker says is, "If you do this perfectly legal thing your employer has asked you to do, I will attempt to injure you."
I'm not fond of junk mail either, but this is kind of an aggressively obnoxious response.
If you do this perfectly legal thing your employer has asked you to do, I will attempt to injure you.
Well, it isn't actually perfectly legal... as I mentioned above, the menu-guys usually gain access to private property on false pretenses. (Of course, threats of bodily harm are also generally frowned upon).
A correct spanish translation is absolutely necessary since many of the delivery people (at least in my hood) speak spanish only.
at #Chupachupsdumonde, I can't imagine what part of NY you live in that is so poor there are no takeout chinese, mexican or fast food chicken places. I don't live in a yuppie neighborhood and I still come home to piles of menus. Often its five or six of the same menu and its the same menus as the day before and the day before that.
I'm not complaining about the restaurant options in New York, but I hate picking up piles of dirty paper every day. I already have menus from the places I eat, and I know how to use the internet.
Here's my strategy: I save them up for a few months, then I flip through and find a restaurant that has given me a particularly large number of menus, walk over there, and dump all the menus inside their front door.
I'm confused. Do New York apartments not have door shoes or sealing thresholds to keep noise, light, and drafts from the hallway out? Why not install one (most landlords wouldn't notice a door shoe) to keep menus out? Something like this: http://www.door-locks.com/door_bottoms.php
oh ethan where on earth do you get your statistics? you say "They ring all the doorbells at once and then claim to be making a delivery." and add "the menu-guys usually gain access to private property on false pretenses"
careful when you say "they" Ethan - you're pigeonholing people and that's just plain wrong.
right?
PELIGRO: NO DEJAR MENUS
PELIGRO: AQUI VIOLAN REPARTIDORES DE MENUS
PELIGRO: GUILLOTINA ACCIONADA POR CELULOSA
PELIGRO: GOOGLE TRADUCIENDO
PELIGRO: MENU = JABÓN EN EL SUELO
PELIGRO: AL DEJAR MENU = TRASERO VULNERABLE
PELIGRO: MANOS CON CUATRO DEDOS SERÁN APLASTADAS
Mucho bonito yo usar google traductor :)
Perfectly good carbon in those menus. Convert it to terra preta by pyrolisis and sequester it.
I live in an awful neighborhood in manhattan and I can still get 24 hour delivery. I also have menus routinely dumped all over my building - doors, hallways, elevator, inside, outside...
Ethan's right about methods of gaining entry. What do you think they do, ask the super if they can dump crap all over?
i used to get annoyed at the mountains of menus i got in my box each day here in tokyo, but then i started ordering the food and realized it was quite tasty, quick, and reasonably priced. these days i get excited when i find a new menu in my mailbox because it's something new to try.
here in the Netherlands we have used a system organised by Friends of the Earth since 1993. Its a simple sticker you put on your letterbox that says Yes i want junk mail or Yes i want unmarked junk mail or (YES|YES) or YES|NO or NO|NO
http://stopjunkmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/dutch-junk-mail-stickers.html
this system works really well, I have a NO|NO sticker and do not receive ANY unwanted mail.. YAY!
Ok, by ProMenuMan#20... How, in your experience, do the menu guys get into the building? My experience is once every week or so I get a ring and told "Delivery." If I buzz the person in (or if someone else does), about 7 minutes later a menu is slipped under my door.
finger lickin good!
I live in Manhattan in prime take-out territory. I'd say that a years worth of menus weighs less than a couple of days worth of junk mail and catalogs for things I have absolutely no interest in... at least menus involves food, which I make a practice of eating on a regular basis. I'm pretty sure that your average menu recycles easier than a glossy catalog, too, even on a per oz basis.