Profile on Plow & Hearth--Reaping What You Sow (2,623 words)

In the holiday season of 1981, the young couple mailed their first catalog—a slim jim printed half in color and half black-and-white with a blend of the products featured in their tiny store. The Rices sunk their capital into a 100,000-piece mailing. Overall, the response to the lists they had rented was "pretty negligible."