17. Catalogs gave birth to creative advertising copy
Montgomery Ward was the first of the mail order catalog giants, and it was the success of the operation observed at a railway station by Richard Warren Sears which led to the creation of the Sears company in competition. The competing catalogs soon employed leading illustrators and writers for the product descriptions of the wares offered, and creative writing which could only be described as misleading was a feature of both companies, as well as other competitors. It was an unregulated age. In one Ward’s description, a sewing machine was offered for the price of just one dollar, in an ad which was illustrated with a depiction of a perfectly sewn hem. The product was actually a sewing needle and a spool of thread.
Both companies eventually found the catalog business to be secondary to their brick and mortar stores which anchored suburban shopping centers and malls. By 1985 the mail order business was a small part of the business model for both chains and the catalogs became more advertising for the merchandise offered on the sales floors of the stores. Virtually everything available in the catalogs was available in the store, or could be ordered by the store more readily than by the customer. The stores also offered the advantage of comparative pricing of similar products and easier returns. Still, the catalogs remained popular, though not cost-effective for either chain by the 1980s.