Editor'a Take: A Reason to Recall Catalog Showrooms

Just inside these stores, you came upon a stand or table housing a stack of small clipboards with order forms attached to them. Usually you'd also see a laminated, Sears Wishbook-like big-book catalog. You were to help yourself to a clipboard and walk around the store with it. There, you'd usually find just one of most of the products the retailer sold — in a showroom style display. If you wanted something, you wrote down the SKU number on the order form. Once you were done with your shopping, you went to an order desk, usually found in the back of the store. There, they'd take your clipboard, go into the back stockroom and bring out your merchandise.