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Mail Box Before E-commerce: A History of Canadian Mail-order Catalogues image
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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

1914-1929: First World War and the Aftermath on the Homefront: Expansion, Growth, and Innovation

During the First World War, department store employees enlisted in large numbers. Rivals such as Eaton's and Simpson's collaborated to support the war effort. Many goods previously imported from Europe were no longer available. During and after the war, many companies initiated expansion programs.

       

1914

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  Simpson's stationery with Regina and Toronto facilities.  
  

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Simpson's builds an 11-storey mail-order warehouse in Toronto.


       

1915

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Scroggie's sells its operations to Almy's Limited, a company representing American interests from New York and Massachusetts. Almy's keeps the business going, with a mail-order division occupying most of the sixth floor, until 1922 when it ceases activity.
       

1915

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  Simpson's Fall Winter 1929-30, cover.  
  

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Eaton's and Simpson's expand in the East and West. Eaton's establishes a distribution centre in Saskatoon. Simpson's builds an eight-storey warehouse in Regina in 1916. Eaton's establishes a second Saskatchewan warehouse for heavy goods in Regina in 1917. In 1919, Simpson's builds a five-storey mail-order facility in Halifax.
       

1919

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  Ad for Returned Soldiers' Farm Buildings and Equipment booklet, Eaton's Fall Winter 1919-20, p. 420.  
  

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In response to the Canadian government's Soldier Settlement Scheme, Eaton's produces a booklet for soldiers planning to farm in the West, containing "the full requirements of a soldier."


       

1920

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  Staff in front of Eaton's mail order, Moncton, NB, 1920.  
  

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  Souvenir birthday cake, February 5, 1921.  
  

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Eaton's opens a regional mail-order headquarters in Moncton. Eaton's mail-order business peaks at $60 million. Simpson's catalogue business is worth $13.1 million.
       

1922

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  Dupuis Frères Automne hiver 1926, cover.  
  

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Intending to cash in on the burgeoning French Canadian market in town and country Dupuis Frères, a Montréal department store established in 1868, issues a French catalogue. Dupuis Frères uses religious and nationalistic themes to sell its merchandise.

       

1923

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Simpson's receives permission from the Post Office to distribute catalogues to all post office boxes on rural routes. Rural Mail Delivery, first introduced in 1908, is responsible for the advent of rural home delivery to mailboxes located up and down country roads and key to accessing a good part of the rural market. The country can now be blanketed with catalogues.
       

1925

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  Army and Navy 1928.  
  

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Army and Navy, a Vancouver-based department store chain, opens a mail-order business headquartered in Regina.
       

1928

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Eaton's introduces a fully automated mail-order processing facility in Montréal, but shuts it down just three years later.
       

1929

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The first priority of Simpson's new owners and president Charles Luther Burton's is to overhaul the mail-order department.

The 1930s: Corporate Expansion, Customer Cash Shortages

 
   
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