Catalogues

Many people say the catalogue that used to appear in mailboxes with regularity, is a dying breed. It's probably so, because snail mail itself is falling off in numbers every year. Fewer people send letters and other mail now by post. Electronic mail is in and snail mail is ending. So the noble catalogue that sold so much merchandise for more than a hundred years may not be around much longer.

I still get a few catalogues in my mailbox at Christmas time, and some retailers who sell only by mail or the internet still send them, but that is about it. Christmas time brings forth many catalogues and it makes me feel good to get them. They are as much nostalgic t em as practical.

But I do sometimes order from a Christmas catalogue. This doesn't mean that catalogues are gone altogether. They exist in on line versions. There are even web sites that show many catalogues the person can view from his or her computer. Catalogue Central is one of those. Then there are sites from which you can order catalogues to be sent to your snail. Try this one to see what that is about.. mailbox.http://www.catalogs.com/

But isn't that really just advertisements? What is the difference between a catalogue selling goods and an on-line advertisement? I looked up the word to see what it is an it says a catalogue is "A publication, such as a book or pamphlet, containing such a list or display". I suppose that means it's just bigger than the typical print advertisement. Seems to me any commercial advertisement you find on line is also big. In fact it is comprehensive enough to lead to other ads. So maybe catalogues exist only in paper form, not on line.

In the big picture of life losing the noble catalogues isn't a big matter to mourn. Most kids have no idea what they are and surely don't look at the pictured of the sexy lingerie ladies in catalogues like we used to do when I was a kid. Still, to me it is another end to something I grew up with, found dear, and will miss. It goes to reason that a catalogues will become extinct before magazines and newspapers do, though they are dying as well. It's cheaper to post catalogue style ads on line now and people have no patience to wade through a paper catalogue anymore. One of the drawbacks of the age of electronics is the loss of patience and the attention span.

I feel sorry that kids will never feel the excitement of pulling the Sears catalogue from their parents' mailbox and the anticipating of receiving the item they purchased using that catalogue. Half the fun of getting the purchase was the wait. But that was in the days when people had patience. I think I preferred those days to what we have now. Do you