Don Canney

Making a recent purchase online spurred a memory of the “original” method of “online” shopping, those old paper catalogues that, in their day, were the bane of a postal carrier’s existence. With each catalogue weighing about a pound or two themselves, the poor carriers would look like modern day Quasimodos, hunched over with the debilitating weight that would quickly add up when they had about a dozen plus to deliver.

Long before letting our fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages (OK, I’m really dating myself now) we would let them walk through the catalogues of some of the largest retail establishments in the world.

Two of the most popular catalogues in their heyday were the Sears Roebuck (aka The Big Book and later The Christmas Book) and Montgomery Ward catalogues. Each boasted well over 600 pages and contained everything from A to Z, much like today’s Amazon (of which we are reminded by their logo sporting an arrow stretching from A to Z beneath the text).

Both Sears and Wards also had retail stores in downtown Nashua as late as the 1970’s. As a kid, my buddies and I would take a “shortcut” to school through the Sear’s store, entering on Main Street, admiring the dizzying wall of TVs displaying the same program in unison on the far wall, and then exiting at the back of the store facing the rear of Crosby’s Bakery. On the way back, we could do the same at Ward’s, entering the store on Main Street, walking along the old creaky floors that seemed to speak to us with each step, and exiting in the rear to the parking lot, near the back of Aubuchon Hardware.

In addition to all the national brands, Sears also offered their own brands of merchandise such as Kenmore (appliances), Silvertone (electronics and musical instruments), J.C. Higgins and Ted Williams (sporting goods) and of course Craftsman tools (with a shout out to Tim Allen).

As a kid, I would peruse the catalogue’s musical instrument offerings and dream of buying one of their classic black-and-white Silvertone electric guitars. It came complete in a stand-up case with built in amplifier and speaker, which back then was quite a basic beginner’s model. Today they are collector’s items, with some worth a pretty penny. I did eventually buy a Silvertone twin twelve guitar amplifier. How I wish I still had that now.

Wards countered with their own brands consisting of Signature (appliances), Airline (electronics) and Powr-Kraft (tools). Remember Wards comical alternate moniker, “Monkey” Wards? That stemmed from the fact that it reportedly once offered exotic monkeys in some of its stores and through its mail-order catalog.

In either catalogue, one could find anything from clothing to furniture, dishes to vacuum cleaners and toys to jewelry. I can remember seeing entire automobile engines for sale as a youngster.

Magazine ads would encourage you to “shop the modern way, from the convenience of your own home.” It was as easy as selecting your items and then calling a number or filling out a form to complete your purchase. (Ok, not quite as easy as today’s search, click, click, done, but at the time, pretty cool). Of course, before the mighty credit card, cash or check had to be enclosed.

Sears once even offered full sized prefabricated kit houses for sale. The basic no frills model dubbed “The Fairy” was available in the 1920’s for as low as $945 (sans plumbing, electricity and heat, which was also available in the catalogue). The kit was delivered locally on a railcar ready to assemble on your existing site. From 1908 to 1940, Sears sold over 70,000 homes, 70% of which still stand. One in Venice Beach, Calif., recently listed for about $2.4M. They were especially popular with returning veterans after WWI.

In addition to making shopping convenient and easy for the average person, the bulkiness of the old catalogues came in handy for some as car seat boosters, step stools, fly swatters or something useful to get a fireplace log started in an emergency.

Try doing that with a link to Amazon!

Don Canney is a freelance writer and professional voice artist. He was born and raised in downtown Nashua with great interest in Nashua history circa 1950-1970. He now resides in Litchfield.