America's Wish Book
By Alexander L. Taylor III
The Sears catalog is not just a potent sales tool. It is America's family album. When the 1897 catalog was reprinted in 1968, 150,000 copies were sold at $15 each. "One can find evidence of our present vices and our present virtues in this splendid volume," wrote Journalist Richard Rovere. "This catalog is at once a product and a display of our culture, especially our mass culture." This summer 12 million copies of the fall-winter edition were sent free to customers who had ordered at least $30 worth of merchandise in the past six months. Another 3 million copies will be sold at $4 each. The 1,515-page "big book," which contains some 120,000 items, ranging from a 29-c- part for a chain-link fence to a $1,979 50-in. projection TV, is the largest of 41 different catalogs Sears publishes annually. Total circulation: 320 million.
In a more tolerant, less restrictive age, the Sears catalog mixed the art of salesmanship with a little bunkum. "We Aim to Illustrate Honestly and Correctly Every Article," Sears stated around the turn of the century. But that did not stop the company from claiming that its goods were "celebrated," "of the finest quality," "thoroughly high grade" not to mention "cheapest."
Home remedies were big sellers, and nine years before the passage of the Federal Food and Drugs Act in 1906, Sears attributed all kinds of curative powers to its treatments. Among them were obesity powders "to get rid of superfluous fat," a hair restorer and remedies for rheumatism, asthma, heart disease and an "opium and morphine habit." The bulk of the 1897 edition is devoted to the essentials of late-19th century life, at prices that today are pure nostalgia. Shoppers could find a 200-lb. barrel of corned beef for $9, a 35-lb. wooden pail of gumdrops at $1.65 and a dozen 5-lb. pails of strawberry jelly for $6. Clothing included men's wool worsted suits for $6.50 and ladies' "walking and bicycle suits" for $6.75, topped off by a "very stylish" $2.95 hat. There were blacksmith's tools, farm implements and a vehicle section featuring phaetons, surreys, carriages and a "top-grade" buggy for $65.
Over the decades, the Sears catalog kept up with the times. The Christmas catalog published in 1933 fitted the Depression era by stressing bargains, though it betrayed a few aspirations for better times. "Merry Christmas to mother--an electrical appliance that saves labor" was a $2.39 automatic iron. Daughters could help out with a 22-piece deluxe toy laundry set with scrubboard and heavy metal washtub for $1.98. Somewhat more in the Christmas spirit were 2-Ib. fruitcakes for 49-c-, Tinkertoys at 69-c-, canaries for $2.95 and a Kodak camera at $6.39.
The newly designed, color-indexed 1984 fall-winter catalog represents Sears' latest refinement of the mail-order art, full of fitness equipment, computers and microwave ovens. Nearly half of the catalog, 622 pages, is devoted to clothing, including women's $100 dresses and men's three-piece suits at $147, as well as work boots and union suits.
Still, the fundamental formula is remarkably unchanged. Just as in earlier times, there are tools, furniture, appliances and gardening equipment. A woman 87 years ago could have bought half a dozen sterling-silver forks for $10.85. Today her great-granddaughter can pick up a 20-piece set in stainless steel for $14.99. Refined versions of the old puffery remain: "Where else would you find such a wide selection of colors and such an incredible value?" reads an ad for women's shoes.
The selling in the Sears catalog starts with the cover. In 1897 it showed a zaftig young woman with a cornucopia, out of which were flowing a piano, a stove, a sewing machine and other household objects. In 1927 Norman Rockwell did one of his Americana paintings for the cover. In 1966 an 18-year-old model named Cheryl Tiegs captured the spirit of American teenagers. This year she not only is on the cover, but she also has her own line of clothes inside. --By Alexander L. Taylor III