There was an interesting item in this morning's daily roundup of retail news from Women's Wear Daily. It reported that Bloomingdale's has announced that its Bloomingdale's by Mail catalog will be discontinued early next year, and enhancements to the Bloomingdale's Web site will be accelerated.
I have really mixed feelings about this change. I love to shop online for its ease and convenience. I especially love shopping online while I'm sitting at home in my pajamas and drinking a cup of coffee. But part of me still loves browsing through the glossy catalogs from stores that are so conveniently delivered to my home. It's definitely a form of window shopping, and it keeps me up to date with what retailers are offering.
What do you think? Do you still like to look at catalogs, or are they a thing of the past?
Re: Catalog or no catalog?
I still like catalogs. Websites vs. catalogs each have their pluses and minuses. There are trails you can go down while website searching that can't be duplicated while browsing a catalog, but I still think a really good catalog can also lead you to things that you'd almost never find on a website. My favorite example are the pet care catalogs from Drs. Foster & Smith. Their website is great, but their catalogs are irreplaceable for browsing and I'd hate to hear that they were being discontinued.