50-year-plus Catalog Veteran Enjoys It Small and Simple

Before putting the Bill Boatman & Co. catalog together, Boatman compiled his own informal mailing list, collecting and processing the names and addresses of his customers at the grocery store. When he’d collected 3,000 of them, which he deemed sufficient at the time, Boatman went about planning his first catalog and mail drop. “I realized the need for a direct catalog for hunters,” Boatman says, noting that it gave him an edge on direct mail competitors that relied on magazine space ads. By 1956, Boatman printed and mailed 70,000 catalogs. This year, the company will mail more than 150,000 catalogs.