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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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 🙂
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