The 1927 edition of the T. EATON Co LIMITED Catalogue

Ανατύπωση του 1971 της αρχικής έκδοσης.

Eaton’s was once Canada’s largest department store retailer. Founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an Irish immigrant, Eaton’s first advertisement read “We propose to sell our goods for CASH ONLY – In selling goods, to have only one price.” In an era where haggling for goods was commonplace, this was a revolutionary business practice.

The T. Eaton Co. Limited grew to become a retail and social institution in Canada, with stores across the country, buying offices across the globe, and a catalogue that found itself in the homes of most Canadians. Eaton’s was well known for its customer service, as expressed in its long-standing slogan “Goods Satisfactory or Money Refunded.” A rapidly changing economic and retail environment in the late 20th century proved difficult for Eaton’s, and the chain went bankrupt in 1999.

The first Eaton’s catalogue was a simple 34-page booklet, issued in 1884. Inside the front cover was the declaration: “Owing to the immense increase in our Mail Order Department, we find it has become a necessity to issue a catalogue of this style, and even this is incomplete, in that it contains only a limited description of the stock, and therefore does not give you a correct idea as to the immense varieties and extensive stock carried by us”.

As Eaton’s grew, so did the catalogue. By 1920, Eaton’s operated mail order warehouses in Winnipeg, Toronto and Moncton to serve its catalogue customers. Catalogue order offices were also established throughout the country, with the first opening in Oakville in 1916.

To many, the catalogue became known as the Homesteader’s Bible or the Wishing Book. It was often said that only two books mattered in a typical Canadian home: the family Bible and the Eaton’s catalogue. At a time when Canada’s population was predominantly rural, often living in isolated settlements, the Eaton’s catalogue provided a selection of goods that was otherwise unavailable to many Canadians. Moreover, it served an important economic role, as it broke local monopolies and allowed all Canadians access to the prices and selection enjoyed in some of the larger cities. The catalogue offered everything from clothing to farming implements. Some Canadians even purchased their homes from the catalogue, with Eaton’s delivering to them all the materials necessary to build a small, prefabricated house. Today, a large number of “Eaton’s catalogue homes” still exist throughout the country, primarily in the West. The catalogue had many other uses, ranging from its use as a learning tool by settlers learning to speak English, to its use as goalie pads during pond hockey games.

The catalogue became an icon of Canadian culture, even appearing in many works of Canadian literature. The most famous example, in Roch Carrier’s story The Hockey Sweater, a young Quebec boy asks his mother for a Montreal Canadiens hockey jersey from the Eaton’s catalogue, but receives a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey instead. As the family is francophone, the mother does not order using the catalogue forms but instead writes a note and sends money to the department store. Because of the prevalent language and cultural barriers of the English- and French-speaking Canadian populations, his family is unaware that the item could be exchanged, and they do not wish to offend Mr. Eaton by returning it.

Over time, the catalogue became a less profitable operation, and by the 1970s, it was a money-losing proposition. As Canada’s population became more urban over the course of the 20th century, Canadians had access to a greater number of local stores, and were less reliant on catalogue purchases. By the mid-1970s, it was estimated that 60% of the suburban customers throughout Canada lived within a thirty-minute drive of an Eaton’s store. Others, however, blamed Eaton’s management for the catalogue’s failures, pointing to the similar Simpsons-Sears catalogue (now the Sears Canada catalogue), which continues to this day even though it has never enjoyed the iconic status or popularity of the Eaton’s catalogue.

ΠΗΓΗ: wikipedia.org