Emily Evans
December 12, 2013
The industry of
retail, advertising and catalogs completely changed the culture of America in
the early 1900’s. Prices were going down
and people were buying. Everyone wanted
to be up to date on the newest trends and latest technology. Catalogs and mail
orders connected the rural areas to city life.
New ways of advertising spread the word on new products. The importance
of shopping and retail came to life in this age.
 |
| Example of a catalog page |
Before catalogs
came around, rural families made everything for themselves. What they could not
make, essentials such as sugar, flour, salt and pepper, they bought at a local
store for high prices. If they needed to buy something from a larger store in
the city, they had to take out a whole half of their day to travel there and
back. Even then, it all depended on if
the roads were dry enough to travel on.
Mail orders made life easier for these people. Door to door salesmen
came to these areas on small wagons or buggies. They brought catalogs filled
with hundreds of pages of black and white product illustrations. Catalogs were very exciting for these people,
because the prices were lower than what they were used to, and there was so
much more things to buy. These catalogs
created a higher standard of living for rural families. Popular items were bicycles, ready-made
clothing, shoes, food items and appliances. Sears created mail order plants,
which made mail orders more efficient. They created a time scheduling system, which
made the system a lot faster. Having access to all of the new styles and
technologies connected the rural areas to modern city life.
Retail took off in
the late 1800s to early 1900’s. No matter what class some one was, their wages
were going up, so they had extra money to spend. New department stores such as Macy’s,
Bloomingdales, and Wannamaker’s changed the idea of fashion. Before these stores took off, people had
little clothing, made it themselves, and did not really care. The whole idea of fashion started in this
age. The sudden access to cheaper
clothing made shopping much more popular and enjoyable. Shopping became a fun,
social scene that most women enjoyed in their free time. Style became much more
important, so everyone was constantly buying. Large chain stores took off as
well. People were able to buy much
larger quantities of food at one time, because there were now canned products,
which they had never had before. The start of more modern refrigerators helped
with that as well. Since these stores
were so large and everyone was buying, prices were able to be much lower than
before. At Sears, a man’s coat could be
purchased for less than five dollars. Before these stores, a coat like that
would have had to be hand made.
As more and more products were coming about, so were advertisements. The technology
of printing had changed, making printing mass quantities much cheaper and
easier. Advertisements were found in newspapers, journals, catalogs, on the
radio and even before movies. Some journals people liked to read were The Saturday
Evening Post and The Lady’s Home Journal. There were advertisements for
clothing, home appliances, radios, movies, plays, food products, and especially
automobiles. Since automobiles were
newly invented, they were starting to become very popular, which caused for
more ads. Coca-Cola took off in this
time period, because of the advertising. It had been around for a while, but
was marketed as a medicine to cure headaches.
It became much more popular when it was marketed as a “fun food”, and
has been popular worldwide since then.
The idea of consuming
and merchandising today, all started in this booming age. The department stores
started over one hundred years ago have led to the department stores in America
today. Some are still owned by the same company. Mail orders have transformed
into ordering off the internet and having items delivered straight to your
home. Advertisements have grown incredibly
since then, including billboards, movie previews, commercials, and ads in
magazines. The same products are still being used and advertised, just
modernized. A huge part of America’s culture started in this time period.
Works Cited
"Advertising
in the 1920s." Advertising in the 1920s. Ibis Communications, n.d.
Web. 08 Dec. 2013. <http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snpmech4.htm>.
LaMeau,
Michele P. "Sears Shifts from Mail Orders to Retail Stores." Innovation
Masters: History's Best Examples of Business Transformation. By Miranda H.
Ferrara. Detroit: Gale, 2012. N. pag. Print.
"Media
in the 1900s." ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation, n.d. Web. 09 Dec.
2013. <http://library.thinkquest.org/27629/themes/media/md00s.html>.
Schmid,
Jack. "Reaching Into Retail." Catalog Age Jan. 1999: n. pag. General
OneFile. Web.
<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DA-SORT&inPS=true&prodId=GPS&userGroupName=avlr&tabID=T003&searchId=R6&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=3&contentSet=GALE%7CA54059380&&docId=GALE|A54059380&docType=GALE&role=ITOF>.
"Sears
History - Early 1900s." Sears History - Early 1900s. Sears, n.d.
Web. 12 Dec. 2013. <http://www.searsarchives.com/history/history1900s.htm>.
"Shopping
in Rural Areas." Shopping in Rural Areas. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec.
2013.
<http://www.growingseasons.com/Growing_Seasons/Shopping_in_Rural_Areas.html>.
Pictue
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/218143175672670835/
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/218143175670669082/
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/218143175670668851/
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