"Whatever it is, you can get it on eBay.” For anyone who's ever been on eBay,
or those like it, Amazon, Craigslist, you know that this is true. When watching
the film over the Sears and Roebuck catalog I couldn't help but feel the modern
day similarities between those of online catalogs, whether it is from a direct
store like Target, or in the entire collection of stores like Amazon. The 1943
Sears News Graphic wrote that the Sears catalog "serves as a mirror of our
times, recording for future historians today’s desires, habits, customs, and
mode of living." (Sears Archives) When watching both the film and personally
viewing the catalog presented in class this seemed like a paperback version of
what you would browse online today. Is this is just the modern adoption of what
was so successful nearly 100 years ago?
One with an index and another a search bar, both for there time have
revolutionized the way that anyone could shop. The Sears catalog in many ways
was revolutionary, taking the storefront to your coffee table and seating an
entire warehouse sized store into a stack of colorfully illustrated bound paper;
incorporating this with the ability of mail-order, a ability to send your
product where ever the customer may be. Parallels among the Sears and Roebuck
catalog and Amazon could be seen as early as 2000 as “the largest
brick-and-mortar bookstores and mail-order catalogs might offer 200,000 titles,
an online bookstore could "carry" several times more.” (Rivlin)
While one might assume that the loss of seeing the tangible product and
giving your money to a man you won't meet, would hinder the sales of these said
businesses products. However as Sears and Roebuck demonstrated and Amazon had
repeated with a different coat of paint this is a very successful business type.
"It must have felt like Christmas, putting your order in, waiting and receiving
that package with what you wanted right in the box." (Mr. Sears' Catalog) Even
today virtual online catalogs like Valves, Steam are extremely successful even
though the ownership of the product, video games are entirely virtual, much like
Amazons kindle. By being able to buy from the comfort of your home, wherever
that may be, the convenience of catalogs that existed with in the past 100 years
are still relevant today.
"History of the Sears Catalog." Sears Archives. N.p., 23 Mar. 2012. Web.
06 Feb. 2013
Mr. Sears' Catalogue. E1 Entertainment, November 6, 1996.
Videocassette
Rivlin, Gary (July 10, 2005). "A Retail Revolution Turns 10". The New York
Times. Retrieved August 4, 2011.
--- Max Mongenas
Steam certainly has become a very useful website for many gamers, as the convenience of being able to buy practically any game from the comfort of your home is hard to overlook. However, this convience can be overlooked in the face of those gamers who enjoy the ability to hold the game box in their hands after going out to a "brick-and-mortar" store.
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