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Anyone here deliver newspapers?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Bradley Guire, Feb 25, 2013.

  1. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I did it for a summer in college and it was just awful.

    If people had realistic expectations, it would only suck a little bit. But there are the people who want the paper wedged in between their storm door and the regular door and people who would want it directly on their doormat. Just crazy, stupid shit... I had about 180 customers and about 10 of them just made the job miserable. I'm sure it's much worse now, because there are so few people who take the paper that you probably have to drive a lot more to hit as many customers... When I did it back in 1993, on most streets, roughly 90 percent of the people took the paper.

    Today, there is one person left in my whole neighborhood who still gets the paper. There was another one, but she died a few months ago. A little more than five years ago, I'll bet 75 percent of them were getting it.

    Don't use the rubber bands... Just fold them and put them in the bags.
     
  2. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    I thought that this thread was going to be about Chris Elliot and his show.

    [​IMG]

    Fairly dark comedy that ran on Fox when it was a fledgling network.

    If my memory still works I think it ran after Living Color.
     
  3. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Hilarious show...
     
  4. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    I remember this commercial before I knew who Chris Elliott even was.

     
  5. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    That show was way ahead of its time.

    I think Bradley should take advice from Mitch Hedberg:

    I had a paper route when I was a kid, I was a paper boy. I was supposed to go to 2,000 houses... or 2 dumpsters!
     
  6. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    That's hilarious... Anyone who did that job for any period of time had that thought...
     
  7. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    The father of a fraternity brother was in the circulation department of the Bill Millsaps Morning News and I delivered that paper in about four dorms my senior year of college (I split it with another guy, he did the other four). After a week of figuring out who got the paper, it was the easiest job I ever had, except for having to get up early. It also got me over to school about two hours before my first class; I'd shower up in the gym, get breakfast, and I had some of my best grades ever and did not miss a class.

    Some assholes bitched that they didn't have their paper at 6 a.m. on weekends. I solved that problem by staying up until 2:30 a.m., when they dropped the papers off, and delivering them then. I always made sure to pound on he door of the guys who bitched about not having their paper there when they woke up. It sobered me up, I was done by 3:15 or so and could go home and sleep as long as I liked.

    I made about $800 bucks a semester, very good money at that time.
     
  8. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    20 years ago, you still had kids on bikes delivering the papers.

    That era is long-gone.
     
  9. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    That's another tragic part of the demise of newspapers. A paper route was a kid's introduction to the working lifestyle. Sure, it was just an hour or so a day, but it was the commitment to be there every day.

    I had a route as a kid for four years. Made enough money to pay for the things I wanted. Better yet, it led to a job driving truck for the paper to pay for college. Even better, some of that time counted toward my severance when I got laid off a few years ago.
     
  10. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    When I did it 20 years ago, 180 papers was both sides of one huge street and several side streets... It generally took me 2-3 hours a day six days a week and 3-4 on Sundays. I would imagine it's a lot harder these days.
     
  11. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Yeah, and you had to "collect" once a week.

    Fucking rich, suburban families ducking a 12-year-old kid.
     
  12. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Deliver them from your bike like I did.
     
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