Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - From Tiffany’s to Donkeys: Catalogues Rise Again

Episode Date: February 14, 2026

This week, we look at the staying power of Catalogues.They’ve been around since the mid 1800s, and they helped build the country.We’ll talk about how catalogues let retailers reach people in far-flung towns and villages.How catalogues finally allowed rural folks to have access to the same goods as city dwellers.And how Seinfeld’s J. Peterman became an owner of the actual J. Peterman catalogue.We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you don’t, subscribe ad-free here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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That's a spicy meatboard. What love doesn't conquer. Al-Caseltzer will. What a relief. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. In February of 1963, the Klein Sporting Goods Company ran an ad in an issue of American Rifleman magazine. It was a magazine that was sent to members of the NRA. Located in Chicago, the Klein Sporting Goods Company had been in business since 1885.

It sold various sporting items, like rods and reels, as well as firearms. The ad it ran in that magazine was for a variety of rights. The company also issued catalogs every year, as it was a mail order company. After World War II, there was a massive supply of army surplus weapons in Europe. Thousands and thousands of weapons sat in warehouses and depots there. Enterprising distributors collected those weapons and shipped them to gun retailers in the U.S. On March 13, 1963, Kleinz received a coupon clip from the ad it ran in American Rifleman.

Included with the coupon was a money order for a specific rifle, a telescopic site, and $1.50 for shipping and handling. The name on the coupon was A. Hiddle. A. Hiddle was the fake name Lee Harvey Oswald used to order the mail order rifle. Oswald ordered a surplus Carcano model M91 T.S. Italian carbine rifle. The ad said it showed only slight previous use. The rifle had been manufactured in 1940 but had been refurbished recently. The gun was shipped on March 20, 1963, to Mr. A. Hiddle, P.O. Box 2915, Dallas, Texas. A post office that had been rented by Lee H. Oswald.

It was a difficult rifle to use. The bolt action was very hard to close, and the telescopic site was misaligned. Gun experts say it was arguably one of the worst infantry rifles of the era. There were better ones in that Klein's sporting goods ad that Oswald could have chosen. But it's believed Oswald picked that mail-order rifle

for one very specific reason. It was the cheapest one in the ad. Cost of the rifle? $12.88. Mail order marketing has been around for a long time. As a matter of fact, the first mail order catalog in North America was produced in 1845.

Catalogs have played a vital role in many lives, especially those who lived in rural areas. People could order virtually anything from a catalog, from small utensils to clothing to farm implements, to prefabricated houses. Catalogs were the Amazon of their time. You're under the influence. A century and a half before online shopping,

there was an early lo-fi version. It was the printed catalog. Marketers and retailers realize they could encourage sales in cities and towns where they had no physical presence. So they sent out catalogs that listed their wares. It was the beginning of mail order retailing. Catalogs were incredibly vital for people who didn't live in big cities. For the first time, rural residents now had access to the same goods as city dwellers. As a result, catalogs were fundamental in the city dwellers.

the building of Canada and the United States. Mail order catalogs fueled the expansion of agriculture and industry by providing rural areas with access to modern machinery. The massive successive catalogs also spurred the advancement of infrastructure. The need for more efficient and faster delivery meant railroad expansion, better postal service, and better roads. And catalogs had long lifespans. They were kept all year until the next issue arrived, which prompted year-round sales.

The oldest known catalog in North America was created by Tiffany's. In 1837, Charles Tiffany and his business partner John B. Young opened a store called Tiffany and Young. It was a fancy goods emporium located on Broadway in New York City. Seven years later, in 1845, the company began printing what was then the first luxury goods catalog. It listed both locally made and imported goods, curiosities, stationery, lifestyle products, and gemstones. The catalog cover was bound in a Robbins Egg blue. Tiffany's called it their blue book. Charles Tiffany chose that specific shade of blue to symbolize renewal and,

and rarity. In the 19th century, when color printing was brand new, the distinctive blue hue became synonymous with Tiffany's exclusivity. Eventually, Tiffany would trademark that color as Pantone Color 1837, named for the year of the company's founding. The blue book catalog was mailed out to wealthy clients across the country. When Charles Tiffany took over the company in 1853, he streamlined the store's offering to concentrate on jewelry, diamonds, and luxury silverware. It was exquisite timing, as the U.S. was entering what Mark Twain called the Gilded Age. In that Gilded Age period from 1870 to 1913, industry boomed, railway miles quadrupled, the population tripled, and there was no personal or corporate income.

income tax. It was the perfect recipe for materialism. And stores like Tiffany's benefited from the economic boom, the postal service, and the ever-expanding railway line that allowed for shipping goods. People thousands of miles away from New York could peruse the Tiffany Blue Book catalog and order high-end goods and jewelry year-round. And to this day, the Tiffany Blue Book is still in print. In 1869, an Irish immigrant named Timothy Eaton opened a dry goods store with his brother, James. They opened their first retail business in Crookton, Ontario, then moved down the road to St. Mary's. Eventually, Timothy and James began quarreling over their business practices, so Timothy left and set up a shop in Toronto. Eaton established his store with a fixed price, no barter, cash-refer, cash-reacted.

only policy, which was somewhat revolutionary at the time. His credo was, goods, satisfactory, or money refunded, a philosophy that would become the store's long-running promise and advertising slogan. His business flourished, and by 1882, Eaton acquired a prime building on Young Street with four floors, elevators, and electric lights. Soon, Eaton began purchasing the surrounding property, for future expansion. The 1884 Toronto Industrial Exhibition, which would later become the C&E, showcased major advancements in industry and agriculture.

To take advantage of the crowds the exhibition attracted, Timothy Eaton printed a 32-page pink mail order booklet to advertise his wares to attendees that came from outside Toronto. By 1887, illustrations were added, and the Eaton's booklet became a catalog that got thicker and thicker. The mail-order department grew so rapidly it became a separate entity from the main store. The Eaton's catalog became a homesteader's Bible. As the rail system grew, connecting the vast geography of the country, Eatans was able to offer lower freight rates to customers, eventually leading to,

to free freight for orders over $25. By 1903, the catalog was so successful, Eatans opened an entire mail order building in Toronto to accommodate the expanding business. Two years later, Eatons opened a five-story department store in Winnipeg, which gave the catalog business a base to expand its Western presence. In 1915, color was added to the catalog, and four years later, the catalog featured photography.

By 1930, Eaton's employed 25,000 people and controlled over 60% of department store sales in Canada. Through all the expansion, the Eaton's catalog was at its core. Customers could order everything from the smallest utensil to clothing, to furniture, to farm implements, and at one time, customers could order prefabricated houses and barns, and Barnes from the pages of the catalog. The catalog was more than a listing of goods.

It served as reading material and a teaching tool for new immigrants learning English. It also had other benefits, too, as old catalogs were used as insulation and even wrapped around shins as hockey padding. The Eaton's catalog would continue to be a fundamental mainstay of Canadian life until competition from stores like Simpson Sears

and the proliferation of other stores in virtually every Canadian town and village eventually reduced mail-order demand. The Eaton's catalog that had helped build the country was finally discontinued in 1976. When we come back, a railway worker sells a few watches and starts a catalog empire. If you're enjoying this episode, you might be able to be. also like underwear in your mailbox subscription marketing season seven episode four where we tell the story of people who throw their undies away every week and get new ones in the mail you'll find that episode on your favorite podcast app back in eighteen eighty six a jeweler refused a shipment of watches in minneapolis minnesota a railway station agent there named richard sears purchased the watches and began selling them for a low price and made a handsome profit.

The next year, he went into business with a watch repairman named Alva Roebuck in Chicago. Two years later, in 1888, the newly named Sears Roebuck & Company began a mail-order catalog featuring watches and jewelry. The catalog proclaimed it contained the lowest prices on earth. Business was brisk, and in the 18th, the Sears' Roebuck catalog expanded to include bicycles, clothing, farm equipment, and furniture. The catalog was so successful, it grew to 500 pages by 1895, then swelled to over 1,000 pages, offering a mind-boggling array of over 100,000 items, selling the equivalent of $25 million worth of goods.

In 1906, Sears opened its catalog plant in the Sears Merchandise Building Tower in Chicago. The building anchored a massive 40-acre Sears Roebuck complex of offices, laboratories, and mail-order operations. Richard Sears wrote most of the catalog copy himself until he retired in 1908. His motto was, we can't afford to lose a customer, which kept the store competitive in turn to. terms of price and value. Sears Roebuck opened its first bricks and mortar store in Chicago in 1995. Soon, it had 300 locations across the country. Throughout the expansion, its catalog still drove millions of dollars in sales. In 1933, Sears issued the first Christmas catalog, Wish Book, featuring toys and gifts, and, like the Eaton's catalog, it also included

prefabricated houses, pets, and you could even buy a live donkey. And like the Eaton's catalog, it was important to the lives of rural folks, as it sold an ideal of middle-class life, helping them with literacy, supplying them with necessary products, and the pages of old Sears catalogs were even widely used as a substitute for toilet paper. The Sears catalog continued to be a large source of revenue, until competition and a changing retail environment forced the company to discontinue it in 1993.

There is a lesser-known aspect of the Sears catalog story. It revolutionized the shopping patterns of rural African-Americans living in the southern states. In the Jim Crow era, rural black southerners only had the option of shopping at white-owned general stores. They were given no credit, were forced to buy, lower-quality goods, suffered price-gouging and condescending treatment. Then, in 1893, Congress passed the Rural Free Delivery Act, making it possible for retailers to easily reach communities across the rural south.

The next year, when Sears Roebuck began sending out its catalogs, the company made a concerted effort to accommodate customers who were barely literate, enacting a policy stating the company would fill any order it received, regardless of the format. So if someone asked for a pair of overalls written humbly on a scrap of paper, the overalls would be shipped, regardless if the order was written in broken English or was barely legible. As the Washington Post said, the Sears catalog gave African Americans a degree of anonymity and dignity.

They could finally buy the same items anybody else. else could buy. Canadian Tire opened its doors in 1922. It began printing its mail-order catalog four years later in 1926. Like Eaton's and Sears, the founders of Canadian Tire wanted to reach customers in more isolated areas. The first Canadian Tire catalog was a simple sheet of paper that featured tire prices on one side and a handy roadmap of Ontario on the other. The front said, we make your dollars go farther.

The catalog business continued to grow, and in the 1930s, Canadian Tire introduced its spring and summer and fall and winter catalogs. By 1968, 2.5 million catalogs were being mailed to customers across the country. The growth of the Canadian Tire catalog exploded in the 1950s. and began showcasing a wide array of products well beyond tires. In 1958, Canadian Tire Money was introduced in the catalogs as a loyalty incentive. That Canadian Tire Money became a cultural phenomenon and is still used to this day. After mailing out catalogs for over 80 years, it was eventually discontinued in 2008. Readership was declining and people were migrating over to the end.

internet. Today, Canadian Tire relies more on flyers, and old Canadian Tire catalogs are now collector's items. One of my favorite TV commercials of all time was done by Canadian Tire. Produced in 1990, it was titled Bike Story. It is a beautifully shot, beautifully cast commercial about a young boy who lives on a rural farm in the prairies with his father in the 19th. 30s. The boy spots a red bicycle in the Canadian tire catalog, and he dreams about it day and night. He cuts the picture of the bike out of the catalog and takes it with him everywhere. One day, his father is looking through the catalog and notices a big hole on the bike page. I'll let this wonderful commercial take it from here, music written by my business

partner, Kerry Crawford. I'm sure a lot of folks can tell you the same story. You just don't forget a thing like that. I can still tell you the page number in that Canadian tire catalog. That bike went everywhere with me. But I knew Dad had more important things to think about. I slept, ate, lived, and breathed that bike. But I just couldn't ask for us.

Hey, boy, I got a couple new tires. He can help me unload. His father reaches into the bed of his pickup truck and lifts out a brand new red bike. I give to see my face that day. One of the best commercials done in this country, I'd say, so loved, an image from the commercial was commemorated on a Canadian postage stamp.

When we come back, the Seinfelds show creates a character based on the J. Peterman catalog. While catalogs may seem like old-school marketing in the digital age, many retailers still print them. Tiffany's Blue Book is still in existence, as we mentioned. Pottery Barn, L.L. Bean, Mastermind, the LCBO, Jay Crewe, Harry Rosen, William Sonoma, and Lee Valley Tools are just a few of the many stores

that still issue printed catalogs. If you're a Seinfeld fan, you may remember that Elaine Benis worked for the Jay-Peterman catalog company. Jay-Peterman was, in fact, a real company that was famous for its catalogs. John Peterman started the company in 1987. He took out an ad in the New Yorker magazine, featuring Long Horseman's Jackets. He sold 70 of them instantly, so he decided to start a mail-order clothing company.

The Jay-Peterman catalog began in 1980. and it was famous not just for its unique items, but for its writing. John Peterman described those items with cinematic, adventurous, and evocative language. For example, here's how the catalog describes a sport coat. A train through the Scottish Highlands in search of Shetland Wool. The neon streets of Tokyo in search of exquisite ramen. A terrace in Buenos Aires in search of something or maybe someone. Exhausted, wrecked, defeated? Never.

Your wool sport coat still looks the part. One jacket, three continents, eight days. There are things in these hidden zippered pockets you don't recognize. A key to some boutique hotel room. A cocktail napkin with deal points. And a phone number starting in 377. Is that getaway cash? In rupees?

Now, where's your passport? Ah, it's right where it should be. I think you get the picture. Every item in the J. Peterman catalog sounded like an Ernest Hemingway novel. Surprisingly, Seinfeld in the show's creators did not contact the real J. Peterman before the character began appearing on the show. The real J. Peterman only discovered he was being parodied after his employees let him know. But an agreement was reached between Jay Peterman's lawyers and the Seinfeld show,

where the real Jay Peterman was given the opportunity to approve the scripts where the fake Jay Peterman, portrayed by actor John O'Hurley, appeared. John Peterman reportedly never changed a word in all the episodes. And if you remember the Jay Peterman character on Seinfeld, he always talked like the catalog copy. Then in the distance I heard the bull. when I began running as fast as I could. Fortunately, I was wearing my Italian capto-Oxfords.

Sophisticated yet different, we're not making a huge fuss about it. Rich, dark brown calf-skin leather, matching linen van. Men's hole in half sizes, seven through thirteen, price $13. And here's something you may not know. Over the years, Jay Peterman and actor John O'Hurley became friends. A year and a half after Seinfeld ended, Jay Peterman called the fake Jay Peterman. Peterman told O'Hurley that his catalog company had fallen into financial trouble,

it was then purchased by another company that also fell into financial trouble, which allowed Jay Peterman to purchase the intellectual property back again. Jay Peterman asked John O'Hurley if he wanted to write a really, really large check and become a partner in the new Jay Peterman catalog. Company. So O'Hurley wrote a really, really large check, and since the year 2000 has been a part owner and board member of the J. Peterman Catalog Company. Truth is stranger than fiction. O'Hurley calls it the greatest act ever of identity theft. Whenever O'Hurley and J. Peterman are walking down the street together in New York, someone inevitably will roll down their window and yell,

hey Peterman, except they're looking at O'Hurley. Catalogs have been around for at least 180 years. While you may think printed catalogs are old-school thinking, consider this. There's something special about holding a physical catalog. While most of us scroll past digital ads in seconds, 69% of people spend between 5 and 30 minutes reading catalog. That's a lot of engagement. And they linger longer in the home.

Interesting to note that the vast majority of consumers trust print more than they trust information online. The Harvard Business Review found that those who receive both physical catalogs and email marketing purchased 24% more than those who only received emails. The most surprising part? Young shoppers are embracing print. and they don't have to live in a major city to shop. That's why retailers still print catalogs and why catalogs still show up in your mailbox

when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terestring Mobile Recording Studio. Producer Debbie O'Reilly, chief sound engineer Jeff Devine. Theme music by Casey Pick, Jeremiah Pick, and James Aiton. Tunes provided by 8. APM Music. Follow me at Terry O. Influence. This podcast is powered by ACAST. Terry's top slogans of all time. Number 17. Dollar Shave Club. Shave time, shave money. See you next week.