Mail-Order Catalog
"The catalog was pure brilliance at a time when [America] was a far-flung nation without a lot of stores. [The catalog was] really the Internet of the day - a place where anyone, at any time, in any place could take a look, say, 'Oh my gosh, I need that' - and get it."
- James Schrager, a University of Chicago buisness professor
- James Schrager, a University of Chicago buisness professor
"The time was right for mail order merchandise. Fueled by the Homestead Act of 1862, America’s westward expansion followed the growth of the railroads. The postal system aided the mail order business by permitting the classification of mail order publications as aids in the dissemination of knowledge entitling these catalogs the postage rate of one cent per pound. The advent of Rural Free Delivery in 1896 also made distribution of the catalog economical. All this set the stage for the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog."
- Sears Archives
- Sears Archives
"[The catalog] serves as a mirror of our times, recording for future historians today’s desires, habits, customs, and mode of living." |
In 1893, Sears, Roebuck and Company started producing a mail-order catalog that contained only watches and jewelry. At this time, farmers were protesting high retail prices. The Sears catalog was the answer to farmers' prayers. Through a combination of volume buying and the use of the railroads and post offices, Sears offered a happy alternative to high-priced rural products. “The farmer’s friend” grew rapidly, soon offering farmers everything they could find in local general stores and more.
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"Our Catalogues and Other Printed Matter may Fall into the Hands of those Living at Remote Distances who will not think of buying, owing to the great distances. Don’t think you live too far away. THERE IS NOT A TOWN IN THE UNITED STATES WHERE WE HAVE NOT SOLD GOODS.” |
"Sears possessed both manic energy and real writing ability, and he made the Sears catalogue a potent selling tool. The Sears product line broadened in the 1890s. From watches and jewelry, it expanded to virtually all goods used by rural farming families, from clothing to buggies, kitchenware to farm equipment, hunting supplies to patent medicines. The Sears catalogue, advertising all of them, became one of the wonders of the modern world, a monument to Sears's ability to portray a remarkably wide range of merchandise in an appealing manner. The catalogue presented such a cornucopia of goods that it create what we might now call a virtual reality in the minds of Sears’ rural customers. It seized their imagination at the same time and it offered countless items that would make their lives more convenient and productive. No other retailer -- fixed or mail -- offered the range and verve of Sears."
- Daniel Raff and Peter Temin, authors of "Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries" |
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"Sears’ six-pound flagship catalog, which many considered “The Farmer’s Bible,” struck the region during a particularly vulnerable period of economic depression in the 1880s and 90s, but by the turn of the century, it was a common household item in even the deepest hollows and desolate farms of the South... Sears, Roebuck & Co. received over 18 million in advance cash orders from the former Confederate states alone." |
"Many articles in this catalogue are quoted at less money than the actual cost to produce. We hold it as a keynote and the fundamental principle of this business that the consumer should not be called upon to pay more than one small profit over and above the actual cost of any kind of merchandise. We contend that it is not legitimate and in accordance with modern business methods for the farmer, the clerk, the mechanic, or the laborer, to pay one-half the price of any article in excessive profits; to give out his hard earned money earned by honest toil, value of the goods, but is only a useless expense caused by faulty business methods."
- Richard W. Sears
- Richard W. Sears
Rachel Keifer, Emily McGovern, and Alayna Stepp
Word Count: 1199 |
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