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The Sears Wish Book was a popular Christmas-themed catalog released annually by the American department store chain Sears in August or September. The catalog contained toys and other holiday-related merchandise. The first Sears Wish Book was published in 1933 [1] and was a separate catalog from the annual Sears Christmas catalog.
The Sears catalog called the "Big Book" or the "Wish Book" [2] offered customers around the US a chance to wear "city clothes" throughout its 97-year-history. [3] The book sold everything from jewelry to cars to tools to farm equipment to pianos to whole homes.
With the huge volume of catalogs, Sears contracted the printing out to Cuneo Press until 1928 when they switched to RR Donnelley. RR Donnelley built the building at 3301 W Arthington St. to print the biannual catalogs. Donnelly printed them at this site until Sears discontinued their catalog. The facility printed up to 7 million copies of their catalogs each year. [4]
In 1993, Sears discontinued publishing their big-book catalogs in the United States and the Wish Book noticeably started to diminish in size. [5] By 2005, Sears had completely abandoned anything resembling the original Wish Book and was producing the 2.5-by-2.5-inch Little Big Wish Book The mini-catalog was given to customers at Sears Auto Centers, placed inside packages that were purchased on Sears.com and Landsend.com, and was included inside the packaging of in-home deliveries.
In 2007, Sears once again created a holiday gift catalog more reminiscent of its predecessor, however, it was still considerably smaller than the original Wish Book at only about 100 pages. This was a stark contrast to the 300-plus page catalog previously produced. [6] According to the Associated Press at that time, the Sears Wish Book was considered as a holiday treat in itself by generations of children who were hoping for the best [7] on Christmas morning.
In the 2007 edition of the catalog, half of the total number of pages was devoted to Christmas toys and the remainder focused on other store items including appliances, tools, clothes and jewelry. [8]
In the 2010 edition, Sears Christmas Wish Book went mobile [9] so customers would be able to access their catalog via smartphone devices.
Sears Holdings, the owner of Sears and Kmart, announced that they would be bring back Sears Wish Book in 2017 both online, mobile, and print editions. [10] This edition is only 120 pages and closely resembles the Wish Books from 2007.
Sears Canada distributed big-book catalogues, including the Wish Book, until the company's dissolution in 2018. [11] In 2012, Sears Canada chief Calvin McDonald hand-delivered Christmas catalogs [12] to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Sears Wish Book. [13]
Sears Canada launched an iPad app for the 2013 Christmas Wish Book which was at the time ranked as the number one free iPad app in Canada in the Catalogue category. [14]
Furby is an American electronic robotic toy by Tiger Electronics. Originally released in 1998, it resembles a hamster or owl-like creature and went through a period of being a "must-have" toy following its holiday season launch. Over 40 million Furbies were sold during the three years of its original production, with 1.8 million sold in 1998, and 14 million in 1999. Its speaking capabilities were translated into 14 languages.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began as a mail ordering catalog company migrating to opening retail locations in 1925, the first in Chicago. In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American big box discount chain Kmart, which upon completion of the merger, formed Sears Holdings. Through the 1980s, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. In 2018, it was the 31st-largest. After several years of declining sales, Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018. It announced on January 16, 2019, that it had won its bankruptcy auction, and that a reduced number of 425 stores would remain open, including 223 Sears stores.
La Presse, founded in 1884, is a French-language online newspaper published daily in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is owned by an independent nonprofit trust.
Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books in the public domain. The original published editions may be scarce or historically significant. Dover republishes these books, making them available at a significantly reduced cost.
O, The Oprah Magazine, also known simply as O, is an American monthly magazine founded by talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Communications. In 2021, Winfrey and Hearst rebranded it as Oprah Daily.
Argos Limited is a British retailer operating in the United Kingdom online and through catalogues, and formerly in Ireland; it was acquired by Sainsbury's supermarket chain in 2016. It was established in November 1972 and is named after the Greek city of Argos. The company trades both through physical shops and online, with 29 million yearly shop customers, and nearly a billion online visitors per annum. It has also franchised overseas to countries such as China.
Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as:
Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002.
A catalog merchant is a form of retailing. The typical merchant sells a wide variety of household and personal products, with many emphasizing jewelry. Unlike a self-serve retail store, most of the items are not displayed; customers select the products from printed catalogs in the store and fill out an order form. The order is brought to the sales counter, where a clerk retrieves the items from the warehouse area to a payment and checkout station.
YP Holdings, now a wholly owned subsidiary of DexYP, is the American parent company for YP LLC. Its products include printed telephone directories, yp.com and YP app. YP offers local search, display ads and direct marketing. On July 31, 2012, YP was included in PaidContent50's list of "the world's most successful digital media companies" based on 2011 digital ad revenue.
R.R. Donnelley is an American integrated communications company that provides marketing and business communications, commercial printing, and related services. Its corporate headquarters are located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. In 2007, R.R. Donnelley was the world's largest commercial printer. In 2021, it was referred to as North America's largest.
Dex One Corporation was an American marketing company providing online, mobile and print search marketing via their DexKnows.com website, print yellow pages directories and pay-per-click ad networks in the U.S.
The IKEA Catalogue was a catalogue published annually by the Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA. First published in Swedish in 1951, the catalogue was considered to be the main marketing tool of the company and, as of 2004, consumed 70% of its annual marketing budget. Approximately 208 million copies of the catalogue were printed in fiscal year 2013, more than double the number of Bibles expected to be printed in the same period.
"Oprah's Favorite Things" was an annual segment that appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show from the 1990s to 2008 and 2010, as well as on Rachael Ray in 2017. In the segment, which airs during Thanksgiving week and was inspired by the holiday song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music, Oprah Winfrey shared products with her audience that she felt were noteworthy or that would make a great gift. In addition, the audience members that were present during the taping of the episode receive items from that year's list for free.
Google Catalogs was a shopping application for tablet computers, which was produced by Google in August 2011. Google Catalogs delivered virtual catalogs to users from merchants like Nordstrom, L.L. Bean, Macy's, Pottery Barn, and many more. Merchants were added through a process by which they submitted a form with information and a sample of their catalog, which was then reviewed by Google's editorial team. The application was noted as a "Greener Way to Shop", as the digitization of catalogs substituted for paper versions.
American Girl is a series of video games developed by various studios and distributed by American Girl.
The economics of Christmas are significant because Christmas is typically a high-volume selling season for goods suppliers around the world. Sales increase dramatically as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies to celebrate. In the U.S., the "Christmas shopping season" starts as early as October. In Canada, merchants begin advertising campaigns just before Halloween, and step up their marketing following Remembrance Day on 11 November. In the UK and Ireland, the Christmas shopping season starts from mid-November, around the time when high street Christmas lights are turned on. In the United States, it has been calculated that about one fifth of retail sales to one quarter of all personal spending takes place during the Christmas/holiday shopping season. Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that expenditure in department stores nationwide rose from $20.8 billion in November 2004 to $31.9 billion in December 2004, an increase of 54 percent. In other sectors, the pre-Christmas increase in spending was even greater, due to a November through December buying surge of 100% in bookstores and 170% in jewelry stores. In the same year employment in American retail stores rose from 1.6 million to 1.8 million in the two months leading up to Christmas. This means that while consumers might spend more during this season, they also are given increased employment opportunities as sales rise to meet the increased demand.
Lakeside Press was a Chicago publishing imprint under which the RR Donnelley Company produced fine books as well as mail order catalogs, telephone directories, encyclopedias, and advertising. The Press was best known for its high quality editions for the Chicago Caxton Club as well as the Lakeside Classics, a series of fine reprints.
DisneyNow is a TV Everywhere platform offered by Disney Branded Television. Replacing the individual "Watch" apps for the respective channels, the service offers programming from Disney Channel, Disney Jr, and Disney XD for subscribers to the three networks on television providers.
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