03/26/2013
Below is the discussion of an informal experiment carried out by a company that sells atheist-branded shoes and accessories. Listen to the interesting result they found:
A warm hello from the ATHEIST Shoes people in Berlin!
We're excited today to finally be able to share with you the results of our recent experiment into shipping quality by the US Postal Service.
Unfortunately, it makes for grim reading, as our study has clearly evidences discrimination, on the part of USPS workers, against atheism (or, more precisely, against atheist-branded packages).
We've made a pretty infographic to summarise the research, and there's a short topline below. Next step is for us to share the findings with USPS... can't wait to hear their thoughts!
Despite the findings, we would encourage our godless American friends to order shoes without trepidation, as we no longer use atheist-branded packing tape on US shipments. So all shoes should arrive in good time & without obstacle!
Thanks for your time!
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The ATHEIST team
Our US Postal Experiment!
After some folk in the USA expressed fears about their ATHEIST SHOES arriving in "ATHEIST" themed packaging, and after 1 or 2 parcels mysteriously disappeared, we got to wondering whether overtly atheist-branded packages might be treated differently by postal workers, particularly in more bible-thumping parts of the world.
Well, we really hoped that wouldn't be the case but we wanted to find out...
So we shipped 178 envelopes to 49 states in the USA, half heavily branded with "ATHEIST" packing tape, the other completely innocuous looking. Each recipient was sent one of each and fedback to us how quickly each arrived and in what condition.
Results showed that ATHEIST-branded packages were 10 times more likely to go missing and, when they did arrive, took on average took 3 days longer to do so that non-branded packages. Having controlled for the study in Europe, and also controlling for factors like geography, the only possible explanation is discrimination in handling of packages by the US Postal Service.
Sad news, but hopefully some good will come from our study. More news, as we have it, at www.facebook.com/atheistshoes
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