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Mail Box Before E-commerce: A History of Canadian Mail-order Catalogues image
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Topics
Fashion to Furnishings
Capturing Customers
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From Order to Delivery
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Catalogues (1880-1975)
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Getting the Goods Out

Subjects
 Social Studies, Drama, Business Studies

Themes
 Labour history, Transportation

Resources
 Processing Orders in the Mail-order Industry, by John Willis

Description

  1. Ask students to read the paper by John Willis, which describes the steps involved in processing a mail order in the 1920s.
     
  2. Divide the class into groups of four or five students.
     
  3. Using the process described in the Willis article, ask groups to choose one object from an historic catalogue and dramatize the entire process of placing an order, sending in the order, filling the order, and delivering it.
     
  4. Ask each group to present their dramatization to the class.
     
  5. Conclude with a discussion about how the process has likely changed today.

 
   
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