What was the benefit of “catalog stores”?

Question

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?

In: 24

Answer 1

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.