Mail-Order Shopping

Mail order shopping is one of the oldest forms of shopping. These catalogs sold everything from clothing, accessories and jewelry to homes. These catalogs were sometimes referred to as ‘dream books’.

You could order merchandise from these catalogs. The merchandise would come to your home. A very convenient way of shopping.

Montgomery Wards was the first of these mail order businesses. This began in 1872.

Another of these mail order catalogs were from Sears, which began in 1886. These catalogs contained 332 pages. At the beginning Sears offered homes and do it yourself building kits.

Eventually, department stores were opened in several cities. Sometimes stores have complimentary catalogs, other times there is a fee.

The mail order shopping business has certainly changed as time has progressed.

Mail order catalogs are highly popular. There are catalogs from such companies as JC Penney, Spiegel, Chadwick’s of Boston, J. Jill and many more.

Conveniently, several of these stores offer online catalogs for those of us who would like to conserve paper. Since the Internet has many links to stores they are a form of mail order shopping as well.