The ad, which ran in the Journal on Feb. 24, 1965 advertises tens of thousands of items 'at your finger tips.' You merely phoned in your order from the comfort of your home, and the sales personnel did all the paper work to process it. Your items were then shipped to the local catalog center; you just had to go pick it up.
Here's a color version of the Penneys catalog in the ad, along with that of its greatest competitor: Sears.
Today, online shopping has largely replaced most catalogs. It's still all about convenience. The difference is now you pay for shipping, but your order is delivered to your home.
What I don't like is that most brick-and-mortar stores like Walmart just don't bother having a lot of stock on their shelves anymore. Their website probably has what you want, but gone are the days when you can just go there and buy it.
Sooner or later, Amazon will be the only place where you can find what you want. For instance, last year I attempted to jump in my car and go buy a pair of sunglasses. I went to my old standby – Drug Mart – and came away empty-handed. I went to a lot of other stores and discovered that unless I wanted to buy a really goofy looking pair, I was out of luck. I ended up buying a pair on Amazon.
Also last year, I dropped my watch (which I had for over 20 years) and broke the band. The watch itself wasn't in great shape either (the crown liked to fall out) but it still worked. Do you think I could buy a replacement band or a new watch in a store in Lorain County? Forget it. I found a new Timex on Amazon (the ones on the Timex website were more than I paid for some of my furniture).
Anyway, it's nice to think back to the days when Mom had all her catalogs – Sears, Penneys, Esco – on a shelf in the hall closet. We bought a lot of clothes, towels, toys, etc. from those books. It was a simpler time.
6 comments:
We were Monkey Ward-ers - my dad's twin brother worked there, and we received a family discount. But their local store closed when a K-Mart opened a store in the same small mall. It took a couple years, but it happened. Then K-Mart goes away when Walmart appears. Now, everyone's buying online, including me, mostly because I *despise* being out with ignorant, loud, poorly dressed, sloppy, noisy people who do nothing but look at their damned phones and are too stoopid to cover their mouths when they cough.
Except if I can buy whatever it is local. I'll do that.
Otherwise, everything is online.
Hey Don, you nailed it!! I don't shop on-line, but my lovely Bride does. I still go out to the store because I'm an old school fool. I just avoid Walmart if at all possible. I miss the Hills and K-Marts of my youth. (long time ago) My Best
I'm convinced that our local Walmart was built over an Indian burial mound; it gives me the creeps, and I can't wait to get out of there.
There must be a whole boatload of Indian Burial Mounds out there because I've never been comfortable in *any* Walmart!
My favorite catalogs were the Sears specialty catalogs which many people might not know about. They had small catalogs for tools, sporting goods, farm equipment and others. There were lots of things in those catalogs that were not included in the big books.
I like looking at old Sears or Pennys catalogs.I can find them from time to time at tag sales.And then I get to reminisce about telling mom I want this toy or that pair of shoes.But alas it is no more.But one thing was different about ordering toys and such out of the old catalogs.The toy that would get ordered would be in a totally different box than what you would expect.Like a plain brown box.Same exact toy.Just a cheap box.I still have some toys that were ordered from my parents for me out of the catalogs and the box that the toy came in was just a plain generic type brown cardboard box.Nothing fancy like when you would see a toy in a store on a shelf where those boxes would be all nice and shiny and have maybe directions or photos of the toy.That always had me a little bummed about getting a toy through a catalog.
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