Monday School: Slow postage for non-believers?

It’s Monday! Time once again for Monday School… your Rational Corrective To All That Nonsense You Learned Yesterday!
Today’s theme was provided by a reader who sent me a link to check out some rather stunning shoes.

I went on to read the article which I thought was fascinating enough to discuss today. The story details a company that believes its products were being delayed or not delivered at all because of how they were packaged. The article I read was about a shoe company in Germany that was receiving complaints from consumers whose shoes were taking a while to get delivered to them in the United States. It turns out the US Postal Service took longer to deliver the product because it had a logo on it that had the word ‘Atheist’ printed on it.

According to the article In late 2012, a “cadre of shoemakers and artists in Berlin, Germany, who make ridiculously comfortable, Bauhaus-inspired shoes” decided to test a hypothesis. They’d noticed that some of their customers in the States were experiencing delays and other problems receiving their shipments. They began to wonder why. Could it be the packing tape they used? The tape prominently featured the name of their brand: ATHEIST. Kickstarted into existence just last year, aims to provide soles for the godless, with shoes that feature “Ich bin atheist” or “Darwin Loves” on their rubbery undersides.

Here is a picture of the shoes in question:

I don’t know about you… but those are so good looking shoes. What the company ended up doing was sent out two different types of packages out at the same time to the same client… some had the atheist tape on it, while the other just had regular packing tape. The boxes that were sent out with the Atheist tape on it took an average of three additional days to arrive to their desired location. A handful of boxes with the Atheist tape also never arrived to their destination at all… going missing mid-delivery. The boxes that had generic tape all arrived sooner than the boxes that did not and only one of them was lost. This is clear evidence of discrimination by US Postal workers against Atheists.

I’m not sure what can be done to complain about this alleged discrimination, but based on the results of their test… the German company is now using generic tape on all deliveries to the United States. They have seen a dramatic difference in the speed of their deliveries since then. It’s sad that this company had to do that just to insure their deliveries were not late, but I commend them for looking into the matter rather than just dismissing it which a lot of companies have been known to do.

This is something that I honestly think the US Postal company needs to look into. If Atheist packages are being delayed could that also mean that parcels with logos or hints of other religions suck as Islam or Buddhist might be delayed based on this clear bias? I hope not but if people are not doing their jobs because of personal anger towards the views of those shipping the parcels, they should be removed from their position immediately.

If you would like to purchase a pair of these amazing shoes (something I am seriously considering myself), you can browse their interesting selection at this link. They look very comfortable but they are a little expensive, going for around one hundred and thirty euros a pair. I personally like the brown pair whose pic I posted above. I might have to add that to my must have hit list.

One day companies like the one shown here will be able to use whatever packaging they want to deliver their products, but based on their small study… today is not that day. So what do you think? Is this company being discriminated against by the US Postal workers or are they blowing things out of proportion?

Peter

WorldPilot

April 15, 2013

Interesting… I myself hadn’t noticed anything but then again I haven’t ever shipped anything overtly marked “Atheist” or “Allahu Akbar” or anything else which could be religiously inflammatory. However, I have heard of isolated incidents of postal workers, especially letter carriers abandoning shipments of, usually, junk mail. Usually, if I recall, someone opens a Dumpster and discovers a bunch of, say, campaign literature with differing addresses dumped in there. As it stands, for the past few years the US Postal Service has been operating in crisis mode as it has lost billion$, and working in that kind of atmosphere isn’t healthy.

YAH

Cool shoes but I think it is cheaper to find a way to engrave any existing pair of soles with the text of your liking…So now the Air Force AND the USPS are bastions of christendom? What is next?

Dark-Magik

To be honest, I don’t like it when companies put ANY identifying marks on their boxes. I’d prefer all my packages to be as generic and nondescript as possible. If a company puts their logo on a box, someone may be tempted to tamper with it and/or steal the contents, especially if the package is from a well-known retailer. There are much better ways for a company to advertise their products.

EWS

April 19, 2013

RYN: I want to make myself perfectly clear on the issue of [Ashleigh bin Field] and [Mad Twins Films]. The OD admins have a long standing issue with them. They have been at each others throats for years, and egging each other on, and complaining to the Admins about each other for years. I don’t care if political information that either of them post is wildly inaccurate or not. And their inflammatory note replies back and forth are their own doing. If I’m going to ban one, I WILL ban both, because they are equally guilty. The fact that I allow both of them to continue to use their accounts is a gift. As for [Mad Twins Films], specifically, he is unstable. And that is a kind statement. He has made repeated threats to me of the legal variety as recently as yesterday. He is hounding me in email and on Twitter. I’ve blocked him from everywhere that I can, and I’m about 2 second from wiping out his account completely. Normally I wouldn’t talk about another ODer with anyone here, but you somewhat defended him, erroneously. I appreciate the spirit of protecting OD you took in reporting [Ashleigh bin Field], but both of them are a very sore spot with me. Eric

I trust you to NOT repeat ANY of my above note with anyone on OD. Thank you. Eric

RYN: I can appreciate what you’re saying, honestly. And I honestly don’t like [Ashleigh bin Field] anymore than you do. However, when it comes to people reading her diary and then posting notes in her entry, and she replies in her “own” diary with mean notes, I have little empathy for them. They are usually political crap being slung back and forth, which I will NOT get involved in political crap,regardless of my own political stance (which is practically nonexistent). If she starts leaving nasty notes on other people’s diaries in the future, as long as they are NOT [Mad Twins Films], let me know and I’ll deal with it on a case by case basis. But be warned, if it’s a political-base argument going back and forth, I will ignore it. I don’t get paid for this job, so I choose not to get involved with political arguments, or baby-sit the children that partake in them. Eric

One thing that continues to baffle me is why do people continue to go to her diary after the initial engagement? In my pre-admin days, if someone flamed me either in their diary or in mine, I’d delete what I could an never read them again. Yet people keep going back to her diary. I amazes me. That tells me that they like to engage with her, and I loose empathy for them for that. Now, it they cut off all engagement with her and she attacks them, then that a completely different thing and I will act on that. Side note: This is my personal view of this situation, and is not necessarily the opinion or policy of the other Admins (if they ever come back, e.g. X and Gail). Eric

RYN: Actually, the DM never gave us (regular admins) the ability to removed submitted diary entries from the Circles. We asked for that years ago and it was never granted. I have complete control over the Boards, but none over the Circles. That’s 100% a DM thing. Eric