I frequently drive past a retail site from my childhood that was once a store called “Service Merchandise”. It had an odd concept where every item was on display and you pulled a tag (like how you bought a video game at Toys R Us back in the 1980s and 1990s). You would take this tag to the register, pay, and then go stand at a conveyer belt where your items came out (like getting luggage at the airport if memory serves). What was the perceived benefit of organizing a store this way? Were there other “catalog stores” (a term my mother uses to refer to Service Merchandise when I ask about it) or was this unique to Service Merchandise?
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It cuts down on theft and it can be convenient if your store sells large items that the customer might not want to lug around while shopping. The only other store that I can think of that works similarly to this is IKEA, and for a furniture store, not having to carry stuff around the store is a big plus.
My wife was a Jeopardy contestant in 1989. One of her parting gifts was a $750 gift certificate to Service Merchandise. We had fun going through the catalog and spending that $750 down to the penny.
I feel this is what todays CVS/Walgreens are with no items available on the shelves or locked up
I remember one called Best Catalog I think…
I was under the impression that they got around retail price setting by the manufacturers by pretending to sell it wholesale.
B&H Photo still somewhat does it. Helps with loss prevention/inventory control and can allow you to sell a wider variety of items.
JC Penney used to have catalog stores in the 70s, but I haven’t seen them in a while. Circuit City also followed the model of having 1 or 2 display items, then sending purchases up from the back.
In the UK we have Argos, which works in the same way. Apart from maybe a few, selected promotional items, there is no stock on display. Instead you have touchscreen terminals (formerly laminated catalogues) from which you make your selection, and then go to the counter to collect your items.
As for why? Allows the store to offer a broader selection of merchandise in a relatively small space, while requiring fewer staff to operate. It’s quick, because you just choose your item, collect and go. Having little stock on display means less leakage due to theft, therefore you save the cost and drama of loss prevention.
I remember Service Merchandise. I lived in the Bay area, and San Jose, and it was a neat place to shop.
When I lived in New Hampshire, we had a place called ByRite, the same idea.
The advantage is lower overhead. You don’t have to have employees on the floor, you don’t have to have employees stock the shelves, and you had to have fewer employees. I would imagine security would be easier as well, since shoplifting would be harder.
I worked at the store in New Hampshire for a short time, and had a lot of fun there.
Thanks for the memory 🙂
The benefits are mostly for the store, not really the consumer. There’s much reduced risk of theft, and you can use the size of the location more efficiently and cheaply, because you don’t need to devote lots of floor space to holding the actual merchandise and keeping it presentable. You can just keep everything in pallets in the back.
That said, the drawbacks for the consumer aren’t too terrible. They have to wait a while while the merch is brought to the front. But hey, they don’t have to lug around all the stuff. So for your bigger items, it can be convenient.
[Consumers Express](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers_Distributing) was another one near me in New Jersey. All I remember is, the catalog always presented new rare and desirable toys (like a He-Man figure that didn’t even appear in commercials yet), but they were never actually in stock at the sales counter. The Wiki article actually says this was one of the biggest reasons for their downfall!
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