With the rise of Amazon and other Internet retail services, many have forgotten the joy of the yearly department store catalogs. They would arrive in our mailboxes, and we would all feel the excitement of cracking open the pages of shopping delight!
Sears and JCPenney had famous catalogs, but Aaron Montgomery Ward founded the world’s first mail-order retail company in Chicago in 1872. The company known as Montgomery Ward & Co. was built on the slogan ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back.’
Countless companies have used this slogan over the years. Not only did companies copy the Montgomery Ward & Co. slogan, but they also copied their business model.
First were the famous catalogs in 1875. Then, in 1926, Montgomery Ward & Co. decided to open retail stores to exhibit their catalog merchandise. They started in Plymouth, Indiana, and everything from clothing to tools was on display.
By 1928, the company had opened 244 stores. By 1929, there were 531 stores. Sears offered a merger, but Montgomery Ward & Co. refused. In 1931, the new president Sewell Avery cut staff levels and stores. He also refurbished existing stores, causing the company to be more profitable after these changes.
Unfortunately, in the ‘50s, Montgomery Ward & Co. was slow to respond to the middle-class populating suburbias around America. JCPenney and Sears were more adept at meeting this population, beating them to the punch.
After 113 years of catalog mail-order business, Montgomery Ward & Co. shut down in 1985. In 1997, Montgomery Ward filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after more competition from Walmart and Target. Although Montgomery Ward & Co. aren’t a powerful force in retail anymore, they still set the bar and traditions that many companies follow today.
