Summer (or Autumn?) Reading

But as computers and the Internet have become mainstream, more consumers have embraced online shopping. And the Web lumps traditional catalogers with retailers, dot-coms and even vendors. Consumers still like receiving catalogs, but they use them more as reference tools today.

Factor in virtually unaffordable postage and paper, mounting pressure from environmental groups, and list fatigue, and you have to ask: Is the catalog business as we once knew it in its autumn?

Perhaps not. In a poll question we ran in June on our Web site, “Do you still consider the catalog trade a unique business form in and of itself?” a majority of you said yes. Which tells me that I still do understand what this business is … at least for now.