Remember when shopping ‘Mail Order’was considered low class?

G

Geezerette

Senior Member
Someone I know recently mentioned the old “Monkey Wards” catalog and how people didn’t want others to know that your clothes & things came from “mail order” instead of town’s nice shops or the city department stores? 50 cent underwear instead of $ 1.50?
And if course there was the Xmas Catalog to drool over what the rich kids were getting.
Now “ you’re doing it wrong “ unless you’re getting fancy “ mail order” from Az etc. and the latest educational toys.m
 

I never cared for mail order clothes. They all looked cheap to me. I preferred catching great sales at nice department stores. I really need to be able to try things on anyway. Then fast forward a few years .J.C. Penneys starting offering nice options in their catalogs. I used them mostly for my shoe orders and stuff for the house. It used to be that you could try the shoes on when you picked them up and return what you didn't want right then and there with no shipping charge. Then they changed that. Another thing is many of those catalog companies offered payment options that wound up costing more than if one had just gone to a department store.
 
I remember the big catalogs from Sears, Montgomery Ward, and JC Penney.

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We didn't buy much from them but we studied them and planned a trip to the city to do our shopping in their retail stores. I remember my grandmother buying tombstones for her and my grandfather in the Sears Lawn and Garden Center.

I miss all of the specialty catalogs that came later with all sorts of wonderful things to dream over and the seed catalogs that my parents and grandparents studied before sending off an order while the snow was still knee-deep in the yard.
 
LOL if shopping 'mail order' is low class, then I must be in the absolute dregs of society, because I buy literally everything that way. And I don't mean "fancy stuff"...I buy the essentials, everything from socks to Tylenol to pajamas online, simply because it's extremely difficult for me to get out to stores. Amazon is the new Sears catalog for me. Even my cat gets everything she needs from Chewy.com...
 
Apologged! I think I’m way older than a lot of folks here. (Hey, my youngest child is turning 60)
And I was talking about how people viewed mail order 70 years ago! Certainly no criticism of much later purchases. Or maybe my town was more snobbish.
 
Remember when shopping mail order was considered low class?

Goodness, this is the first I have ever heard of such, however, had it not been for the likes of the Sears Spring & Summer and the Sears Fall & Winter catalogues, as well as the Sears Christmas Wish Book, we, as in me and my baby siblings, would have seen even less than we did.

Everyone I knew shopped the Sears catalogues, especially those with kids.

Whatever things outside of that ordered through the Sears catalogues, came from the likes of department stores such as Saan's, Fields, Hudson's Bay, Woolworths, Kresge's, along with a few other places.

I remember going into and shopping for the first time in a few boutique ladies-wear stores in my teens, Dee's Ladies Apparel, being one of them. Dee's, was the place to buy dress slacks, tops, and all things in-between. Of course with the selection and high quality names brands they carried, came a higher price, but I was babysitting regularly at the time and would save my money for that one special thing I had my heart sold on.

As for toys and things under the Christmas tree each year, 95% of all found under our tree was from Sears.

With my own children I used to order a ton of things out of the Sears catalogues, especially when my kids were little. Seemed that Sears always had a 2 for 1 sale on, or sales in general. Baby pyjamas, shirts, underwear, tops, pants, between Sears and Woolworths, my kids were 5 & dime kids.

I used to love how so much of what Sears offered was quality categorized, for example, they carried "economical crib sheets", or you could order "premium quality crib sheets", and then there was "Sears Best crib sheets". It was like that for most everything and anything you were in need of.
 
Geezerette said:
Someone I know recently mentioned the old “Monkey Wards” catalog and how people didn’t want others to know that your clothes & things came from “mail order” instead of town’s nice shops or the city department stores? 50 cent underwear instead of $ 1.50?
And if course there was the Xmas Catalog to drool over what the rich kids were getting.
Now “ you’re doing it wrong “ unless you’re getting fancy “ mail order” from Az etc. and the latest educational toys.m
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I never heard that said.
 
I am guessing the person who lived in this apartment before me did a lot of catalog shopping, I get 2-3 catalogs a week addressed to her. They ARE fun to look at. I do remember Sears and Montgomery Wards. Slightly OT, but I remember saving the Green Stamps and looking through the catalog of items you could "buy" with them.
 
Did not perceive Monkey Wards as Sears as low class, still don't. There products were superior to what we have available today.
I do know Sears Kenmore Washers and Dryers were the best appliances available for decades, may still be so.
There tools were the best-lifetime guarantee.
Plus, "If you don't like it bring it back." on all merchandise (mostly).
Don't know what the high dollar merchant's return policies were

(When did Ward's expire-1980's?)
 
Well if you lived down a dirt road in a remote area of West Texas, or rural Idaho like I did, there was little opportunity to shop any other way. Virtually everything we bought came from a catalogue.

And of course those hefty catalogues soon found their way to the outhouse where they were "recycled."
 
Never considered their merchandise low class, never heard it before either.
I was born and raised in the “burbs” of NYC, my Mom shopped at Klein’s, Alexander’s and a couple of small, non chain stores like 2 Guys and Majors.
My first communion dress came from a specialty store.
 
Geezerette said:
Someone I know recently mentioned the old “Monkey Wards” catalog and how people didn’t want others to know that your clothes & things came from “mail order” instead of town’s nice shops or the city department stores? 50 cent underwear instead of $ 1.50?
And if course there was the Xmas Catalog to drool over what the rich kids were getting.
Now “ you’re doing it wrong “ unless you’re getting fancy “ mail order” from Az etc. and the latest educational toys.m
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Where do you people live? In Kansas it's not considered low class. It's perfectly normal behavior. LOL!! I don't think anyone here ever thought that. Even years ago.
 
tbeltrans said:
We grew up on clothes from Sears and Montgomery Wards, and never knew it was low class. I feel fortunate to not have been told that until now. :)

Tony
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Same here. Low class? When my kids were little shopping at K-mart was low class, but that's what we could afford. When I started working at the steel mill I could afford to buy clothes at Wards and tools at Sears.
 
Nathan said:
Same here. Low class? When my kids were little shopping at K-mart was low class, but that's what we could afford. When I started working at the steel mill I could afford to buy clothes at Wards and tools at Sears.
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Kmart and Zellers for me, too, when my lids were little.
 
Certainly there are people who look down on those who buy from catalogues. One reason is because they could buy things 'on tick', which meant pay in instalments. So the implication is that only the poorer people buy from catalogues.
I spent much of my childhood living abroad (military family) and buying from catalogues was pretty much our only choice.
 
I remember the Sunday mail had a dress pattern for children or as quoted “ for the lady of the house “ in the paper each week that you ordered by sending a money order, it took for ever to get the patten in the mail
 
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Geezerette said:
Apologged! I think I’m way older than a lot of folks here. (Hey, my youngest child is turning 60)
And I was talking about how people viewed mail order 70 years ago! Certainly no criticism of much later purchases. Or maybe my town was more snobbish.
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No worries. That was a bit before my time but as others have said, I don't remember mail order purchases other than the Sears "wishbook" at Christmas time. I remember being embarrassed by my home sewn clothes at times, though.
 
Nothing was as exciting as “The Christmas Wish Book.” It was studied for weeks even though I’d know it was mostly just wishes.

All the other seasons & special sale catalogues were popular to too.

Once they started charging for a return, the love was gone.
 
Sears was a big deal when I was kid. I checked off every page of the Sears Xmas catalog. I slept with that thing. And Santa bought all my toys from Sears. It was always kind of fuzzy about the North Pole elves and Sears. I do remember when an extremely endowed male model poked out from his underwear. His picture in the catalog caused quite a stir. I remember they had a song on the radio about him. It was something like, "Mr. page 646".
 
Nathan said:
Same here. Low class? When my kids were little shopping at K-mart was low class, but that's what we could afford. When I started working at the steel mill I could afford to buy clothes at Wards and tools at Sears.
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Don't forget JC Penny. LOL
 
I don't know if it was the building or what. I used to love going into our JC Penny store in Newton. Something about the smell of the building and the distinct creek of the stairs was just something I enjoyed for some odd reason. *Grins*
 
MarciKS said:
I don't know if it was the building or what. I used to love going into our JC Penny store in Newton. Something about the smell of the building and the distinct creek of the stairs was just something I enjoyed for some odd reason. *Grins*
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I felt that way about the big Sears store when I was a kid. They had a candy/nuts counter in the middle of the store where they cooked the nuts and made popcorn. Best smelling store EVER.
 

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