From the Feb. 14, 2011, Time Magazine "Money: Paper Trail" by Tom Vanderbilt.
The old paperboy of days gone by hardly exists anymore . In 1990, they delivered nearly 70% of newspapers. In 2008, just 13%.
One reason for their demise is cost-conscious with a shift to large distribution centers which deliver larger bundles of papers across a wider area, where adults in vehicle fill the delivery role. "Instead of a kid throwing your paper on your porch (or in the bushes), an adult in a car puts it in your roadside mailbox or drops it at the end of your driveway."
We get the Chicago Tribune adult-delivered at the end of our driveway here in Spring Grove. I don't believe we've ever had one delivered by a paperboy (or girl) even when we lived in Round Lake Beach.
Culture is also part of it. Many kids have stopped delivering papers for the same reasons many have stopped walking to school (walkers have shrunk from 50% in the late 60s to 16% in 2001). Part of this is the "Stranger Danger" fears and even bigger is that the movement from suburbs to exurbs has made it too far to walk or bike to school.
I'll have to write about the current way kids get to and from school in another blog.
A By-Gone Thing? --Cooter
No comments:
Post a Comment