Even now, the post office still breaks stuff for delivery without extra fee.
How did people use pre-Internet catalogs?
- Thread starter pangaea
- Start date
Even now, the post office still breaks stuff for delivery without extra fee.
Paper forms sent by mail and placing orders by phone.
Now ask about memos before we had email. . .
Now ask about memos before we had email. . .
The Wells Fargo Wagon came through once a year.
Seriously, we went to retail stores and ordered off their catalogs and shipped directly to the store for the most part. There was also the door-to-door catalog salesman like the Fuller brush man. Sometimes you ordered by phone and payed with a credit card or by mail via check or money order. For "kiddie" stuff you put a buck in the envelope.
Seriously, we went to retail stores and ordered off their catalogs and shipped directly to the store for the most part. There was also the door-to-door catalog salesman like the Fuller brush man. Sometimes you ordered by phone and payed with a credit card or by mail via check or money order. For "kiddie" stuff you put a buck in the envelope.
i remember in the 1980s a big Carolina furniture truck would show up and park on the block totally unannounced, then word of mouth would spread through yelling in the streets , telephones ringing, snooping out the windows,,,and all the moms would run out to the truck and start buying discount couches and recliners and sectionals.
or more relevant for a shaving site - anybody remember guys walking a cart or driving a van around the neighborhood and ringing a bell....and people would bring him knives, scissors, razors to sharpen? there's still a dude like that around here but i think his business is mostly barbers and restaurant chefs, not just random joe schmo's in the street.
You give them this ...
... either by mail or dropping it off at a local store/agent.
You either include the necessary funds, or pay C.O.D. (cash on delivery) ... of course, C.O.D. had an extra fee attached.
... either by mail or dropping it off at a local store/agent.
You either include the necessary funds, or pay C.O.D. (cash on delivery) ... of course, C.O.D. had an extra fee attached.
I work in a sporting goods store. We had a gentleman who would come in every Friday, setup inside the front door and sharpen most anything for a reasonable fee. Did a pretty good job too. He was at other stores in the area other days. Passed away this winter and we can't find anyone to replace him. Amazing how much business he bought us, folks are still asking for him every Friday.
Didn't have that many traveling salesmen come to the farm that I recall. Do remember the Watkins man visited with spices, extracts and concentrate for making drinks. And the Moorman feed man came fairly frequently. In fact, I have a single edge razor that he gave my dad for some purchase (lots of prizes for purchases from Moormans). Tried to shave SE once with it; never again!
The problem with the old guy ringing a bell to announce his sharpening service was on the street was that you’d never have enough time to gather up all the stuff you needed sharpening before he left your block.
Trust me, I know...it’s either the sharpening guy or a Dickie Dee ice cream truck. And lemme tell ya, it’s disconcerting to be found running out into the street when you hear the bells, waving a bunch of cutlery and garden implements only to find yourself terrifying a bunch of kids clustered around the ice cream truck...
Trust me, I know...it’s either the sharpening guy or a Dickie Dee ice cream truck. And lemme tell ya, it’s disconcerting to be found running out into the street when you hear the bells, waving a bunch of cutlery and garden implements only to find yourself terrifying a bunch of kids clustered around the ice cream truck...
When a kid, we lived in the country, so no street-side services. Did have a knife sharpening guy come through the neighborhood when we lived near Naples, Italy. He pulled a foot-operated grinding wheel. Rather a rough sharpening job!
reminds me of one of my favorite Mitch Hedberg lines: I had an ant farm once...they didn't grow a darned thing.
I actually ordered the throw your voice, and it was a ventriloquism instruction booklet. It was interesting and, I suspect, fairly accurate. It didn't help me at 8 years old. I also had the life sized glow-in-the-dark frankenstein poster, a venus flytrap and many other things over the years.
Couldn't get a Sea Monkey to hatch to save my life. : )
I always got them to hatch, but they would all eventually die, one by one, until you just had a pot of murky water and sea monkey corpses.
The horror...
I always wanted the first two. Never saw the Raquel Welch pillow. I must find one
Why did you ask that? I don't remember but it somehow worked. As a kid, I had the ladies underwear section of the Sears catalogue memorized but never ordered any. I guess that is why they were normally kept in the bathroom. Now that I think about it, there wasn't that much stuff to buy back then that you couldn't get in town or at the mall. Do they still have malls? The worst thing was that there was no way to learn how to hone a razor!
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