Argos To Stop Printing Catalogue After Almost 50 Years (theguardian.com) 18
Argos is to stop printing its catalogue after almost 50 years, as the buying bible once found in three-quarters of British homes becomes yet another victim of the inexorable move to online shopping. From a report: More than 1bn copies of the bi-annual catalogue have been printed since its launch in 1973, and at its height it was Europe's most widely printed publication, with only the bible in more homes across the UK. However, Argos is to stop printing the title, with the retailer saying that online shopping offers "greater convenience" than flicking through its print catalogue. Coronavirus has hammered the publishing industry and seen numerous titles closed, including music magazine Q, but the company said the pandemic was not responsible for the decision to cease printing. The catalogue has had its celebrity moments over the years. The comedian Alan Carr chose it as the one book he would take when he appeared on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, and stars from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tess Daly to Holly Willoughby and Emma Bunton have plugged products in its pages.
Oh no! (Score:4)
It was great for small children (Score:4, Informative)
When my kids were small, they would cut out the pictures and give them to me pasted onto a piece of paper as their Christmas which list. They had great fun going through the catalogue and finding things.
And the number of pages in it was huge, so it could take hours to go through it.
The online catalogue in'st just the same.
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Argos really missed the boat. They could have been Amazon, they had the delivery problem sorted thanks to their stores.
Chav Nightmare!!! (Score:1)
Like Sears (Score:4, Informative)
This sounds like the Sears catalog, which stopped printing a year before Amazon launched. The Sears Wishbook was hundreds of pages, and as kids, we were always excited to go through the toy section and mark all the ones we liked.
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My favorite as a kid was the Edmund Scientifics catalog.
I think they've also stopped producing their general scientifics catalog, bur they still send out a printed catalog of the `toys and other stuff foe kids' section.
Also, American Science & Surplus still does a printed catalog and it is *awesome*! If you know Edmund Scientifics (notable for, well..., "scientifics"), Building 19 (notable for having random merchandise and a generally attitude of silliness), the Duluth Trading Company catalog (notable f
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It sounds similar, but some differences too. The Brits seem to remember the small pens they used in the Argos store to write down the catalog number then wait until someone retrieves the item from somewhere in the back (which is Tardis like, it-holds more items than can possibly fit into the building itself). The stores themselves had very little to browse and buy directly.
Whereas with Sears you had a mix of actual stores where you shopped normally, and a mail-order operation as well. The closest to Argos
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The American version of that was probably "Service Merchandise": you could browse through the store..., sorry, showroom (or catalogue, I guess?) with a piece of paper and a small p
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We had a LaBelle's around here which worked like that. You ordered from a catalog at the service desk and then your stuff came out.
I think there were some Sears and Penny's outlets like that in smaller towns. I think most of them had zero merchandise on hand, everything got shipped in and the store front was just an ordering and delivery storefront.
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Not quite. In Argos stores most of the products were NOT on display, so the only way to find a product was through the catalog.
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Eh, that was also true of Service Merchandise, there were a lot of things that weren't on display, and catalogs were available in the stores.
It was a stupid concept, they went out of business years ago.
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You grab a pen, you scribble your test, and if it fails you put it back in the pen rack. Repeat until you find one that works.
they will be fine for an long time like sears! (Score:2)
they will be fine for an long time like sears!
The Laminated Book of Dreams comes to an end... (Score:2)
Argos is actually quite good. (Score:2)
Some things are better off as .pdf anyway (Score:2)
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The problem with Argos is the criteria is lousy in the digital version..
E.g you need a 2 Meter curtain pole, you get a list of poles at different prices but it doesn't tell you the lengths so you have to click into each item to see if it meets your requirements.
This is where the paper book shines. There are maybe 4 or so related pages and products easy to find suitable options.
On line stock checking also sucks, I could use 5 Argos stores near me but I can only check availability in 2 at a time, although it
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