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Mail Box Before E-commerce: A History of Canadian 
Mail-order Catalogues image
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Fashion to Furnishings
Capturing Customers
Company Histories
From 
Order to Delivery
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Timeline
Catalogues (1880-1975)
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Timeline
Mail Order Origins 1880-1914 1914-1929 The 
1930s 1939-1945 1945-2003

The Story of the Mail-order Catalogue

Mail-order Origins in European and American Department Stores

Industrialization made mass production and distribution possible. In the late 19th century, large department stores introduced mail-order operations to extend their markets beyond the stores themselves into smaller cities and rural areas. The French and the Americans were leaders in this field.

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1871

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  Engraving of Au Bon Marché, 
1901.  
  

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Au Bon Marché, a Paris department store since 1852, introduces its mail-order service. There are two divisions, one for France, the other for foreign countries, and mail orders are delivered throughout Europe and Africa. One-and-a-half million catalogues are distributed in 1894 alone.


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1872

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  Montgomery Ward Fall Winter 1903-04, 
cover.  
  

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Montgomery Ward, a Chicago retailer, produces the first American catalogue, a price list sent to members of the Grange, a farmer's movement in nearby states. The company, based in a city with excellent rail connections, becomes the giant of the mail-order business in the United States.

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1874

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Rowland Macy establishes a special mail-order department in his New York City store on 14th Street West. From 1879 to its closure in 1912, Macy's produces seasonal catalogues twice a year. The catalogue is 300 pages long by the early 1890s.


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1876

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John Wanamaker of Philadelphia introduces a mail-order service. By the early 1880s the firm receives more than 1000 letters a day. Wanamaker is among the first to hire commercial artists to decorate his catalogues and advertising literature.


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1886

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  Sears Roebuck headquarters in Chicago, 
Sears Roebuck & Co Fall 1908, back cover.  
  

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Richard Sears issues a modest catalogue for selling watches. The catalogue grows to 110 pages in 1892, 786 pages in 1897. Unlike most companies, Sears starts in mail order and later branches into retailing. By 1888, Canadians are purchasing so many goods through Sears that the company opens an office in Toronto.


1880-1914: Early Beginnings of Department Store Catalogues in Canada

 

   
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