During this time of isolation I see many advertisements on television for products you can buy from home. Automobiles top the list. You can just order your vehicle online, no interest financing, deferred payments for up to six months and receive an essential person discount! If you order the car, you're essential. That stuff always amuses me. I'm not fooled by any of that. A few weeks ago it was first responders, before that teachers, and before that employee discount, just like you worked there. But the incentive to buy is offered repeatedly and I suppose some buy it, no pun intended. But I was thinking about shopping in general and how that has changed over the years. Well, really shopping has made somewhat of a complete cycle in my experience thus far.
I don't recall how the conversation began but I mentioned to my wife how so many are now shopping from home. Today it is called browsing, you browse in your browser, when I was young we just looked in the window of the store. We called that window shopping. You didn't actually go into the store unless you genuinely intended to buy something. I would look at the toys, the clothes, the shoes, electronics or whatever and admire those things. In that way if I ever had the money to buy something I knew just who had what. I also did a lot of shopping in the Sear and Roebuck catalogue. That was the browser of the fifties and sixties. Sears did offer that revolving credit! It was called revolving credit because you just kept making payment in a continuous cycle. Sears was the main one but there was JC Penny, Montgomery Ward. Fingerhut and others. A walk down main street and all the goods it had to offer was right there, in those pages. A window to the world!
There came a time when there was a shift, I'm thinking about the time the shopping mall came to be a thing. With a mall you didn't just look in the window, you were encouraged to come inside. Come on in, handle the merchandise. When you are done just toss it down anywhere no problem. Yes that was different. You didn't go into Mom and Pops' shop and mess around with the merchandise and make a mess. No, quite the contrary. You went in there with the intent to purchase a certain item, to satisfy a need for a product. The shop owner or an employee immediately greeted you and offered to assist you. If you said, I just want to look that would be politely tolerated but they did keep an eye on what you were doing. It wasn't because they feared theft, it was because they would straighten things out if you messed it up. That was frowned upon back in the day but the motto the customer is always right was observed, for the most part. You were appreciated as a valuable customer ( potentially ) not a sale. Those days are now relegated to boutiques and quaint little shops, a touch of nostalgia that comes at a price. The same rules no longer apply in those shops, feel free to just browse and throw stuff around leaving without a purchase. but it's trendy and chic so it's all good.
And today we find ourselves at home, the quaint little shops and boutiques closed down. Heck, main street is closed! Yes there are still places to go and shop, Walmart and the like. Liquor stores are deemed essential business. So it seems like a cycle is complete. We are once again doing our shopping from home. The difference being using the internet inside of the catalogue. We have a myriad of ways to pay or charge. Admittedly before my time but at one time you could buy an automobile and a house from the Sears and Roebuck catalogue! We can buy either one today, from home, by internet order. A cycle complete. Yes shopping was brought to those isolated in the past, isolated by distance from the cities and towns. Rural America was presented with the catalogue(s) to the world. Today all that is available. In fact just yesterday I was browsing, looking at printers. I bookmarked the page. :) In the catalogue I would fold the corner of the page over, bookmarking it? Can you bookmark a catalogue?
I remember the days of looking at those toys in the windows and the days when I was told, don't touch. I was also told don't handle anything you are not willing to buy. If you didn't have the money to buy, don't touch it! It made me want those things just that much more. Like forbidden fruit, I wanted to be able to buy that. If I went in that store with two dollars in my pocket I could pick up anything that costs up to two dollars. Secretly I picked things up that I had no intention of buying at all, but I had the money if I wanted too! Today I look at things I have no intention of buying either, but I could finance them if I wanted too, to a point. And that's the point. Sears had that revolving charge account, kept you paying forever. Finance companies carry on that tradition. Today it isn't so much about what we do have, as what we could have. You know Sears didn't call their Christmas catalogue the Wish book for nothing.
Who remembers this bit of trivial information from long ago? Remember when you purchased " good " pants from Sears and Roebuck they didn't come hemmed, no, only the cheaper pants did that. Your Mom hemmed those pants ( slacks if your a fancy person ) to be just right.
I don't recall how the conversation began but I mentioned to my wife how so many are now shopping from home. Today it is called browsing, you browse in your browser, when I was young we just looked in the window of the store. We called that window shopping. You didn't actually go into the store unless you genuinely intended to buy something. I would look at the toys, the clothes, the shoes, electronics or whatever and admire those things. In that way if I ever had the money to buy something I knew just who had what. I also did a lot of shopping in the Sear and Roebuck catalogue. That was the browser of the fifties and sixties. Sears did offer that revolving credit! It was called revolving credit because you just kept making payment in a continuous cycle. Sears was the main one but there was JC Penny, Montgomery Ward. Fingerhut and others. A walk down main street and all the goods it had to offer was right there, in those pages. A window to the world!
There came a time when there was a shift, I'm thinking about the time the shopping mall came to be a thing. With a mall you didn't just look in the window, you were encouraged to come inside. Come on in, handle the merchandise. When you are done just toss it down anywhere no problem. Yes that was different. You didn't go into Mom and Pops' shop and mess around with the merchandise and make a mess. No, quite the contrary. You went in there with the intent to purchase a certain item, to satisfy a need for a product. The shop owner or an employee immediately greeted you and offered to assist you. If you said, I just want to look that would be politely tolerated but they did keep an eye on what you were doing. It wasn't because they feared theft, it was because they would straighten things out if you messed it up. That was frowned upon back in the day but the motto the customer is always right was observed, for the most part. You were appreciated as a valuable customer ( potentially ) not a sale. Those days are now relegated to boutiques and quaint little shops, a touch of nostalgia that comes at a price. The same rules no longer apply in those shops, feel free to just browse and throw stuff around leaving without a purchase. but it's trendy and chic so it's all good.
And today we find ourselves at home, the quaint little shops and boutiques closed down. Heck, main street is closed! Yes there are still places to go and shop, Walmart and the like. Liquor stores are deemed essential business. So it seems like a cycle is complete. We are once again doing our shopping from home. The difference being using the internet inside of the catalogue. We have a myriad of ways to pay or charge. Admittedly before my time but at one time you could buy an automobile and a house from the Sears and Roebuck catalogue! We can buy either one today, from home, by internet order. A cycle complete. Yes shopping was brought to those isolated in the past, isolated by distance from the cities and towns. Rural America was presented with the catalogue(s) to the world. Today all that is available. In fact just yesterday I was browsing, looking at printers. I bookmarked the page. :) In the catalogue I would fold the corner of the page over, bookmarking it? Can you bookmark a catalogue?
I remember the days of looking at those toys in the windows and the days when I was told, don't touch. I was also told don't handle anything you are not willing to buy. If you didn't have the money to buy, don't touch it! It made me want those things just that much more. Like forbidden fruit, I wanted to be able to buy that. If I went in that store with two dollars in my pocket I could pick up anything that costs up to two dollars. Secretly I picked things up that I had no intention of buying at all, but I had the money if I wanted too! Today I look at things I have no intention of buying either, but I could finance them if I wanted too, to a point. And that's the point. Sears had that revolving charge account, kept you paying forever. Finance companies carry on that tradition. Today it isn't so much about what we do have, as what we could have. You know Sears didn't call their Christmas catalogue the Wish book for nothing.
Who remembers this bit of trivial information from long ago? Remember when you purchased " good " pants from Sears and Roebuck they didn't come hemmed, no, only the cheaper pants did that. Your Mom hemmed those pants ( slacks if your a fancy person ) to be just right.
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