Today’s online shopping yesterday’s catalogues

If they have not already, your grandchildren and/or great grandchildren will someday pose this question to you: “Gramps, Grandma, what is a catalogue?”

Truth is, in 1845 Tiffany and Co. released a catalogue called the Blue Book, making it the first mail order catalogue in North America. Second up was the Eaton’s catalogue that was printed and mailed in Canada in 1875. The first Sears catalogue was published in 1888. In 1893, Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck renamed their watch company Sears, Roebuck & Co. and began to diversify.

I can only relate to remembering historical facts (memory fails at times) from the 1950s. We would get a series of catalogues. First the Eaton’s and Sears fall and winter catalogues. Each about nine-by-12 with more than 500 pages. Each catalogue was sectioned off: female clothing, shoes, appliances. For us adventurous children: toys, Meccano sets, men’s and children’s clothing, sports with all price ranges of hockey skates.

Then a few weeks before Christmas, a special Christmas sales catalogue would be delivered to our door. Order before a certain date and delivery was guaranteed for under the tree. And it was a Sears or Eaton’s truck that delivered it to your door. The cycle would repeat itself for spring and summer. Catalogues for those seasons and in July a back-to-school special sales edition.

But, the large retail stores got enticed into becoming the anchor stores at the never ending expanding mall outlets. Sears Roebuck’s last catalogue was published in 1993 — 26 years ago. A mistake? Were they ahead of their time and did not know it?

What does the retail environment look like today and where is their future. Amazon says shop online. Is that just another catalogue found on your computer? Amazon promises to deliver to wherever you like by a given date using certain couriers. Is that not what Sears had and how it committed to deliver?

Had Sears, Eaton’s and other large retailers who provided catalogue shopping envisioned moving these catalogues to online businesses what would they look like today? My parents used to love buying things through the catalogues. Special products were delivered during the day while we were in school, giving them time to hide them.

I bet you all have fond memories of days gone by. Catalogue shopping? Online shopping? Not much has changed. Ron St. Louis Welland