Home Shopping and Catalogs

Green consumerism is viewed by some in the green movement as an oxymoron. For others, it is the easy way to save the planet. Green consumers now have a huge variety of goods available for purchase that vary in the depth of the “greenness” of the product. Their consumer choices can make a difference in environmental effects. One effect is the “greening” of a growing array of products, although how green these products are varies significantly from one catalog product line to another.

Retailers spend billions of dollars each year distributing 17 billion catalogs through the mail because they believe that this form of advertising works. The catalogs come at a rate of 55 per person per year, which amounts to millions of tons of garbage, particularly during the holiday season. They are environmentally expensive, and most are not recycled. They require specially treated papers and special inks that may be environmentally unfriendly. Attempts to switch to catalogs that are much more environmentally friendly have not been very successful because consumers prefer slick-papered and colorfully printed catalogs to browner ones. Some environmentalists have sought to limit catalog mailings with “Do Not Mail” lists, but with little success. The other alternative is home shopping via the Internet, which is cheap and may be the best “green catalog.”

[Page 246]The business of producing home catalogs as a marketing tool began in 1872. Aaron Montgomery Ward was a traveling salesman. He and many other salesmen would carry samples to many small towns and cities, where they would call on businesses to sell their products in bulk at wholesale prices, or go door-to-door to take retail sales orders. Other salesmen would visit farms to sell; however, farms were often difficult to reach, and the terrain or the weather could present many challenges to this type of personal marketing to homes.

Ward realized that printed catalogs could be mailed to homes as a marketing tool and that people would be able to shop from home. Customers would order from the catalog by mailing in the order form. They could prepay, pay cash on delivery, or pay after delivery. A large variety of goods was for available for sale in those early catalogs, which gave millions of people a way to access goods from home that were previously unknown or unavailable to them.

Sears, Roebuck and Company developed a catalog that eventually grew to be several inches thick. Its array of goods included toys, tools, farm equipment, kitchen equipment, bedding, linens, personal items, and virtually anything consumers wanted. The Sears catalog was often referred to as the “wish book.” Old copies also served as toilet tissue.

The invention of the automobile and paved highways allowed people to travel to towns, but shopping was still difficult in certain seasons, such as Christmas, winter, or during vacations. It became a convenience to order products from catalogs. For retailers, catalog sales were a welcome addition to store sales and greatly expanded their businesses. It was also a boon to the postal service, which handled more packages, increasing its business.

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