Mail Order catalogues

Jellybaby_1 · 17-03-2022 1:27am #1

I've been asked by an elderly lady to order an Oxendale's or Littlewoods or Family Album catalogue as she is very frail and can't get to the shops and as she is particular about her clothes I can't buy anything for her. These companies don't post out catalogues any more, everything seems to be online, so just wondering if anyone here has any advice or can point me to any other catalogue company in Europe?? Big ask, I know.

looksee · 17-03-2022 10:10am

Oxendales apparently do a paper catalogue, but you have to ask for it, as far as I can see: https://www.oxendales.ie/shop/catalogue/simple/entry.action?cm_sp=OXI-TopNav-_-NavigationGroup-_-CatalogueRequest

Jellybaby_1 · 17-03-2022 9:26pm

Thanks Looksee but that page doesn't seem to want to accept my address no matter which way I enter it in. I'll email or ring them after the weekend.

looksee · 17-03-2022 11:52pm

Oh, well maybe it has changed recently. You'd think a mail order firm would have provision for people who don't go on line, even if they have to specially request a catalogue.

Beasty · 18-03-2022 12:45am

Alas the days of the 1,000+ page Mail Order Catalogue are long-gone. One of the largest overheads was the printing and distribution of those catalogues and they were facing their extinction nearly 2 decades ago. This thread is a reminder of my 3rd full time job which I started exactly a third of a century ago today. It was the largest mail order company in the UK & I, and indeed across Europe (Family Album being the main Irish brand). The mail order business was sold and merged with Littlewoods nearly 2 decades ago, when the writing was very definitely on the wall for those paper catalogues. They simply cannot compete with online retailers with a traditional; mail order catalogue. Prices would be fixed almost 9 months ahead of expiry of the relevant catalogue with little scope for price changes and price matching. It was the same for Argos, which maintained a paper catalogue for a lot longer, but having been sold (or more accurately from my personal perspective bought) for £2bn in 1998, was acquired by to Sainsburys a few years ago for a lot less, and the business continues to struggle (it was originally set up from the Green Shield Stamp scheme in the 1970s)

The company I walked into 33 1/3rd years ago still exists, as part of a very different business with a significant presence in Ireland. I'm now partially retired, but still working for that Group. I actually have a couple of mail order catalogues from the 1970s - leather bound versions that were given to the directors at the time.

Jellybaby_1 · 18-03-2022 8:30pm

Ah Green Shield Stamps, I well remember the excitement I got as a child from looking through the catalogue and I still have my mother's Pyrex set of dishes which she saved up so long for. Indeed the catalogues will be missed. I have very elderly ladies in my family and they are frustrated by not being able to chose their own clothes and invariably what is purchased on their behalf is rarely satisfactory for them. I may have to get them to come to my house in order to see the online catalogue on my computer, but it will be a struggle getting them in and out of a car. 😟

Garlinge · 20-03-2022 6:01pm

Happy memories of sticking my English granny's green shield stamps into the books and finding something we could get with 2 and a quarter books! I recently cleared my father's house and finally those cereal bowls of long service were disposed of. I did not realise that they operated in Ireland and did not know that Argos was the takeover company. I miss their catalogues! I wanted some item recently and only seemed to be 'out of stock' for anything I looked at.

looksee · 20-03-2022 8:57pm

Seems like a lot of Argos's stuff is out of stock. They do say sometimes that something is out of stock for delivery, which is a bit confusing as they have it, they are just not prepared to deliver it.