22 Years Ago In Time

It is hard to remember a time when CATALOGUES were "refreshing." But before the Web, mail-order shopping was a breakthrough, releasing consumers from the grip of the mall, as this TIME cover illustrates.

The mail order industry ... caters to every conceivable need of the American buyer except finding parking space, spending hours to find the objects he seeks and quite possibly dealing with surly salesclerks in jampacked retail stores. Those catalogues, offering everything from $29 anoraks to $4 Zippo lighters, have become a major factor in the U.S. economy. As subtly and sneakily as a falling nightgown strap from the Victoria's Secret lingerie catalogue, they have exerted a refreshing influence on American consumers and their style. More than 5 billion of those catalogues will be mailed in 1982 ... The average American household receives 40 catalogues a year ... To an ever increasing number of consumers with neither time nor heart for legwork shopping, thumbing through the catalogues can not only save time and money but be rewarding as well. --TIME, Nov. 8, 1982