On Friday, an envelope in the mail contained an urgent message from Essence Magazine warning that our subscription HAS ONLY THREE ISSUES LEFT, so we need to RENEW OUR SUBSCRIPTION RIGHT NOW to avoid any interruption in delivery. Because, as the ad copy proclaimed, we don’t want to miss a SINGLE ISSUE of the country’s premiere black culture magazine.
Quite the sales pitch except for one thing.
We never subscribed to the magazine in the first place.
Every time a new issue appears in the mailbox, Hiram and I speculate about why we receive it.
- Does the marketing department send complimentary subscriptions to randomly selected families to generate interest? If so, maybe they should do market research to find people in their target audience is in order.
- Did a friend sign us up for a guest subscription as a joke? If so, it was a good one because Hiram and I kid about who gets to read it first right before we toss it into the recycling bin. Though if we’d received the Denzel Washington issue, I might have read it.
- Did someone order it to expand and add color to our cultural horizons? In that case, we’d much prefer an all expense paid trip to Kenya. Or South Africa. Or Nigeria. Or Harlem.
Those questions will most likely remain unanswered, but one thing I do know. Even though it only costs $8.00 a year to subscribe and the e-version is free, we don’t plan to renew our subscription.
Which brings me to the essence of the matter.
If this company delivers magazines to people who don’t order it, charge only $8.00 a year for people who do order it, and the e-version is free, why are they still in business?
Anybody else out there receiving unordered magazines? If so, leave a comment about your mystery subscription.
