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Mail Order Agency in Post-war Britain: The Agent, The Company, and The Customer

Coopey Richard, Sean O‘Connell, and Dilwyn Porter

in Mail Order Retailing in Britain: A Business and Social History

This chapter discusses the importance of the relationship between mail order and ‘free’ consumer credit. British mail order houses helped their customers finance their purchases by allowing them ... More

This chapter discusses the importance of the relationship between mail order and ‘free’ consumer credit. British mail order houses helped their customers finance their purchases by allowing them credit, usually for a period of twenty weeks, but for up to thirty-eight weeks on some more expensive catalogue items. There was no charge to the customer for this service, the cost to the company being bundled in with the price. Here was a second feature that helped to define British mail order retailing, where installment credit sales accounted for over 80% in value of total sales in the mid-1970s.Less

The Evolution of Mail Order Retailing in Post-war Britain

Coopey Richard, Sean O‘Connell, and Dilwyn Porter

in Mail Order Retailing in Britain: A Business and Social History

This chapter presents an account of the rapid expansion of mail order in the quarter of a century after 1950. With the outbreak of war in 1939, Britain's mail order retailers were faced with severe ... More

This chapter presents an account of the rapid expansion of mail order in the quarter of a century after 1950. With the outbreak of war in 1939, Britain's mail order retailers were faced with severe difficulties. Not only were goods in short supply but consumption was subject to rationing and other forms of restrictions. The continuing climate of economic austerity in the immediate post-war period ensured that it was not until 1950 that mail order retailing resumed an upward momentum. Thereafter, it took off, experiencing rapid growth in the 1950s and 1960s as consumer spending reached hitherto unprecedented levels and consumers took what has been called ‘the great leap forward’ into affluence.Less

General Mail Order Retailing in Britain: Origins and Development till 1939

Coopey Richard, Sean O‘Connell, and Dilwyn Porter

in Mail Order Retailing in Britain: A Business and Social History

This chapter provides a history of British mail order retailing, tracing its development from its origins in the watch clubs established by the Fattorini family and other late-19th century pioneers ... More

This chapter provides a history of British mail order retailing, tracing its development from its origins in the watch clubs established by the Fattorini family and other late-19th century pioneers through to 1939. Topics covered include general mail order retailing before 1914, mail order houses during the First World War, expansion of mail order retailing in the 1920s, and the transformation of the mail order corporate landscape in the 1930s.Less

Disconnecting the Personal: Computers and Mail Order

Coopey Richard, Sean O‘Connell, and Dilwyn Porter

in Mail Order Retailing in Britain: A Business and Social History

This chapter argues that computerization led to a depersonalization of the mail order industry, both inside and outside the firm. Whereas, at one time, warehouse workers could exercise some ... More

This chapter argues that computerization led to a depersonalization of the mail order industry, both inside and outside the firm. Whereas, at one time, warehouse workers could exercise some discretion in making up an order, they ‘now picked items according to a route determined by the computer and printed out on a picking slip’. Relationships between workers and management became systemized, as did those linking the firm and its agents, despite attempts to tailor computer programmes to create the illusion of a personal connection. Computerization and related technological systems, notably telesales and call centres, heralded the end of the traditional agency system and ushered in an alternative regime of direct selling to customers.Less

Introduction

Coopey Richard, Sean O‘Connell, and Dilwyn Porter

in Mail Order Retailing in Britain: A Business and Social History

This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the development of the mail order industry in Britain. It argues that in order to set the history of the mail order sector in Britain, as ... More

This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the development of the mail order industry in Britain. It argues that in order to set the history of the mail order sector in Britain, as well as the separate histories of the companies that comprised it, in an appropriate context, an approach is required that does more than simply trace changes in the pattern of demand and the corresponding supply-side responses. It is also necessary to explore the territory that lies between business history as traditionally practised, with emphasis on the organizational capacities of the firm, and the history of consumption, a sub-discipline that embraces an understanding of the social structures and cultural practices that have underpinned customer behaviour. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is presented.Less

Working-Class Life, Consumer Credit, and the Making of Agency Mail Order

Coopey Richard, Sean O‘Connell, and Dilwyn Porter

in Mail Order Retailing in Britain: A Business and Social History

This chapter explores the role of the spare-time agent, from the watch club organizer of the late 19th century through to the working housewife and mother a century later. By the end of the 1930s, ... More

This chapter explores the role of the spare-time agent, from the watch club organizer of the late 19th century through to the working housewife and mother a century later. By the end of the 1930s, mail order retailing had begun to deal directly with the women who held the purse strings in working-class families. Agency mail order only became a significant retail phenomenon when it tapped into the rhythms of working-class women's lives. This was made possible by the creation of systems that allowed for simple credit transactions, founded upon the payment of small weekly sums out of the limited disposable income available in the majority of early 20th-century households. Equally important, the catalogues and payments were administrated by family, friends, or neighbours, who were approachable and understood both the needs and credit limitations of their customers.Less

Inside the Firm: Mail Order, Efficiency, and Rationalization—From Personal to Organizational Control

Coopey Richard, Sean O‘Connell, and Dilwyn Porter

in Mail Order Retailing in Britain: A Business and Social History

This chapter charts the transition from personalized management to the fully rationalized systems introduced in the interwar period, highlighting the complex evolutionary pattern which emerged and ... More

This chapter charts the transition from personalized management to the fully rationalized systems introduced in the interwar period, highlighting the complex evolutionary pattern which emerged and the way in which ambition and compromise shaped internal corporate strategy. It is shown that mail order companies in the United Kingdom are something of a paradox in terms of their rate of modernization. The traditional paternalist approach to management and organization hung on well into the post-war years. Though the individual control regimes of the Fattorini, Kay, Rampton, and Moores families embraced modernization to a certain degree, there were still strong vestiges of personal, paternalist control to be found in many warehouses. For much of the 20th century, work in the British mail order warehouse and office remained centred around individual knowledge, skill, and traditional practice, which blended with the family-oriented recruitment and social welfare schemes of many employers in the sector.Less

The Second Home Shopping Revolution

Coopey Richard, Sean O‘Connell, and Dilwyn Porter

in Mail Order Retailing in Britain: A Business and Social History

This chapter outlines the complex processes which sparked the ‘revolution’ in retailing and assesses the depth and nature of its impact, before exploring the place of the traditional mail order firm ... More

This chapter outlines the complex processes which sparked the ‘revolution’ in retailing and assesses the depth and nature of its impact, before exploring the place of the traditional mail order firm in this new world of shopping. The mail order industry established home shopping at the end of the 19th century. By the end of the 20th century, the mail order industry had gone through a series of radical changes. The relationship between the customer and the enterprise was now mediated by a new connectivity — an impersonal and systematized computer-driven regime now moved goods and assessed credit, replacing the old fusion between the social network and the firm. Net shopping, retailing, e-commerce, and a host of other epithets were applied to the new economy, driven by technical factors including the ubiquity and scale of computer power, personal computer ownership and networks, and the growth of the Internet.Less

Conclusion

Coopey Richard, Sean O‘Connell, and Dilwyn Porter

in Mail Order Retailing in Britain: A Business and Social History

This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of the topics discussed in the preceding chapters. The development of general mail order retailing in Britain is discussed, from the late 19th century to ... More

This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of the topics discussed in the preceding chapters. The development of general mail order retailing in Britain is discussed, from the late 19th century to the advent of Internet shopping. It is argued that although influenced to some extent by the American model, it is clear that British mail order retailing followed a significantly different trajectory.Less

Formal and informal co‐operative credit

Sean O'Connell

in Credit and Community: Working-Class Debt in the UK since 1880

This chapter first examines co-operative retailers. Co-operative ideologues viewed credit as unthrifty, putting a brake on its provision. However, mutuality clubs (which resembled check trading) ... More

This chapter first examines co-operative retailers. Co-operative ideologues viewed credit as unthrifty, putting a brake on its provision. However, mutuality clubs (which resembled check trading) operated between 1923 and 1968 and equalled the Provident's turnover in the 1950s. But many consumers preferred the Provident check's portability. Less successful were the co-operative movement's post-war experiments with mail order. Though championed by critics of Provident, the co-operative movement's credit policies were socially exclusive. Members had to have funds in their co-operative society before accessing instalment facilities. A cocktail of altruistic and instrumental motives led to unauthorized lending of co-operative books between neighbours. Working-class agency was also evident in credit rotation societies (ROSCAs). Their gendered use in ‘traditional’ working-class communities is narrated, as it that in Afro-Caribbean and Asian immigrants (where they were frequently a response to financial exclusion). Social connectedness within ROSCAs proved powerful, but they too were socially exclusive.Less

Performing the Filipina Mail-Order Bride: Queer Neoliberalism, Affective Labor, and Homonationalism

Gina K. Velasco

in Queering the Global Filipina Body: Contested Nationalisms in the Filipina/o Diaspora

Chapter 3 argues that the video and performance art project Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride, by the Filipina American video and performance art ensemble the Mail Order Brides / M.O.B., ... More

Chapter 3 argues that the video and performance art project Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride, by the Filipina American video and performance art ensemble the Mail Order Brides / M.O.B., reconfigures the discourse of Filipina mail-order brides as abject figures. Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride undermines the heteronormativity and masculinism of Filipina/o American cultural nationalism while also critiquing the homonationalism of LGBT cultural politics in the United States. Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride is situated within a broader US political context of queer neoliberalism, in which gay marriage is a sign of homonational belonging. A queer neoliberal logic commodifies the labor of transnational Filipina bodies, revealing the inherent racism of the mainstream LGBT movement’s inability to address issues of race, migration, and labor.Less

The McKenna Family Distillery: Marketing, Medicine, and Temperance

Karl Raitz

in Making Bourbon: A Geographical History of Distilling in Nineteenth-Century Kentucky

Henry McKenna was shipping whiskey to markets across Kentucky and to a diverse customer base of individuals, retailers, and wholesalers in the South, Middle West, Great Plains, and mountain West by ... More

Henry McKenna was shipping whiskey to markets across Kentucky and to a diverse customer base of individuals, retailers, and wholesalers in the South, Middle West, Great Plains, and mountain West by the 1870s, primarily by rail. His sons were active in company management by 1881, and they established a sales and shipping office in Louisville. Customers often specified their interest in “aged whiskey.” The McKennas developed a comprehensive marketing program that included sales to hotels and restaurants; they advertised in professional medical journals and in circulars displayed in railroad passenger cars. The distillery’s logo included two ancient Irish symbols: the Irish harp and the winged Maiden of Eire. Representatives displayed McKenna’s product at medical conventions and directed ads to the medicinal whiskey market. Patrons in dry states and counties used McKenna’s mail-order service extensively. The McKennas did not strive to operate a high-capacity industrial distillery but remained committed to supporting their local community.Less

Doorstep moneylending since the 1950s

Sean O'Connell

in Credit and Community: Working-Class Debt in the UK since 1880

This chapter explains the success of companies such as Provident Financial and Cattles (both members of the FTSE 250 by the 1990s). Their agents serviced the growing sub-prime sector and ... More

This chapter explains the success of companies such as Provident Financial and Cattles (both members of the FTSE 250 by the 1990s). Their agents serviced the growing sub-prime sector and commercialized backstreet feminized affectual relationships between borrowers and lenders. The extent to which their success was dependent on the decline of pawnbroking and mail order agency (and the limitations of the government's Social Fund) is explained. The motivations and limited options of moneylenders' customers are explored as are accusations of ‘predatory lending’ and exploitation. Moneylenders fought PR battles to exclude themselves from the label ‘loan shark’, as images of criminal moneylenders increasingly replaced ones of ‘Shylocks’. The chapter examines the role of violent loan sharks, explaining their small but significant market. Particularly important was the fact that government resisted calls for interest rate caps because it feared legal lenders would abandon their riskiest borrowers, leaving them vulnerable to loan sharks.Less

Store and Mill

Edward L. Ayers

in Southern Crossing: A History of the American South, 1877-1906

The mercantile business in the South has been in an upswing. The chapter details the experiences of a young “drummer” Arch Trawick and the opportunities that wholesale drummers had. Advertising was ... More

The mercantile business in the South has been in an upswing. The chapter details the experiences of a young “drummer” Arch Trawick and the opportunities that wholesale drummers had. Advertising was revolutionized accompanying corporate standardization leading to the earliest mass advertising campaigns in the country. Mail-order houses came on the scene and local Southerners became “much addicted to shopping by mail” as it offered autonomy and anonymity which were of high value to the poor as much as the lower prices. Purchases made by tenants were controlled by merchants or land owners. Modern merchandising and advertising found its way in to every aspect of Southern life. Cooking and food preparation was revolutionized during this time and the invention of Coca-Cola can be traced back to the growing network of Southern stores. Textile production and the timber industry triggered economic change in the New South.Less

The Birth of the Home Improvement Store

Richard Harris

in Building a Market: The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914-1960

During the 1920s, retail yards were reluctant to go after a new consumer business due to their loyalty to the lumber trade. In other words, they did not know whether to remain specialized or to ... More

During the 1920s, retail yards were reluctant to go after a new consumer business due to their loyalty to the lumber trade. In other words, they did not know whether to remain specialized or to diversify. After 1905, a new group of lumber dealers offered a new business model that paved the way for home improvement stores, which are more diversified as far as selling building materials are concerned and had the ability to cater to the needs of home improvement consumers. Retailers soon found out that they were facing serious competition from mail-order companies, who, notably Sears and Roebuck, were effective in marketing house kits and generated more sales by offering a new service: credit. Through their catalogs, mail-order companies had revolutionized the advertising of homes. While their main concern was the consumer, kit companies were also interested in how the local building industry would respond. One positive impact of kit companies on dealers was that they forced the latter to rethink their business and to finally think about their consumers.Less

An Advertisement That Never Changed

Edwin L. Battistella

in Do You Make These Mistakes in English?: The Story of Sherwin Cody's Famous Language School

This chapter introduces the main subjects of the book — Sherwin Cody and his famous home study course on the English language. The chapter sets the context of the book and introduces the long‐running ... More

This chapter introduces the main subjects of the book — Sherwin Cody and his famous home study course on the English language. The chapter sets the context of the book and introduces the long‐running advertising campaign begun by Cody and Maxwell Sackheim.Less

The Economic Miracle in the Bedroom

in Before Porn Was Legal: The Erotica Empire of Beate Uhse

This chapter examines the history of the growth of the mail-order erotica firms in West Germany in the 1950s. It suggests that the mechanics of marketing helped shape the gendered and social ... More

This chapter examines the history of the growth of the mail-order erotica firms in West Germany in the 1950s. It suggests that the mechanics of marketing helped shape the gendered and social parameters of this marketplace, and that sexual consumption was one of the ways West Germans attempted to recover from material want and emotional strain. The chapter also discusses the influence of sexual consumption on gender relations, sexuality, and domesticity in the aftermath of World War II.Less

1940–1949: Roth Breaks Parole, Uncovers a Nazi Plot, Gives “Dame Post Office” Fits, and Tells His Own Story in Mail-Order Advertising Copy

Jay A. Gertzman

in Samuel Roth, Infamous Modernist

After his release from the penitentiary, Roth’s return to borderline publishing would have landed him back in prison for violation of parole, if not for his being asked by the FBI to help then with ... More

After his release from the penitentiary, Roth’s return to borderline publishing would have landed him back in prison for violation of parole, if not for his being asked by the FBI to help then with evidence exposing a Nazi espionage ring in which one of the Faro authors, Fritz Duquesne, was a principal. He began mail-order publishing operations that brought him both lucrative returns and attempts to declare his circulars unmailable. There were seventeen such determinations, but Roth continued to flourish. During this period, the Post Office developed a procedure, especially to foil Roth’s extensive operations, that linked obscenity and fraud. Circulars appealing to prurience were held to fraudulently promise pornography, since the goods advertised were not sexually explicit or indecent. The unmailable decisions were made ex parte; there was no adversarial procedure.Less