Can We Shop Early?

WELCOME BACK TO part two of the Pushing the Envelope 2005 holiday catalog postmortem, or “How to Fill White Space and Shop at the Same Time.”

Last issue, we covered which catalogs made their way into the Negus Viveiros household. This time around, we’ll look at shopping experiences, what purchases were made — and also a few that weren’t.

One thing that’s interesting about today’s direct shopping environment is that if a specific catalog is your Point A, that company shouldn’t naturally expect it’ll be your Point B. Thanks to the Web and the myriad of opportunities open to shoppers, consumers can start at Point A, hop to Points B, C, D and beyond before plunking down their plastic.

Example No. 1: I browsed the Characters catalog several times, and was intrigued with a lot of its products. But much of what was offered was either too upscale or inappropriate for those on my holiday shopping list who really would appreciate items festooned with Batman, Snoopy or Winnie-the-Pooh. (Translation: They just weren’t right for the under-age-6 crowd.)

But since it had the Elmo and Cookie Monster T-shirts my young son loves, I decided to visit the Web site hoping it might offer some Bob the Builder couture. No such luck, so I moved on and Googled “Bob the Builder shirts.”

Several results popped up, including Target.com. I went to its site, searched again, and found 6,865 matches for Bob the Builder — but apparently no apparel. Can we fix that? Yes, we can…by going to another site. Back on Google, I saw an old press release from Sears trumpeting a line of Bob clothing for tots. Again, no such items appeared on its site.

Then another link caught my eye: eBay. A quick search yielded enough Bob-wear to clothe a sizable construction crew, so the big e-tailers lost this round.

Another “Point A = Detour” experience was had with The Popcorn Factory, a catalog I’ve ordered from happily numerous times. I considered a few items for gifts, and then saw a Sunday newspaper FSI offering a half-price Halloween bucket.

Hmmmm…how tacky would it be if I wrote a “Merry Christmas” message on a card for a Halloween bucket that a relative would receive in late October? Would I get lots of points for being the first to extend season’s greetings, or just be thought of as a cheap loon out to save a few bucks? Did I care?

But while still considering, a DRTV ad for Dale and Thomas Popcorn caught my eye, and invited me to go to its Web site for FREE popcorn, in exchange for a $2.95 S&H fee. Free? Who doesn’t like free, even with a small shipping charge? I went to the site and ordered two bags — not big enough to give as gifts, but certainly enough to try the product if I still wanted to order for the holidays later.

Of course, there were some good, old-fashioned examples of Point A leading right to Point B. I loved one little graphic element of Doctors Foster & Smith’s “Happy Howl-o-ween” catalog: Colored tabs appeared at the top of each page, telling visitors what department they were reading. If you wanted dog treats, there was no need to browse collars, medicine or feeders — you could just flip right to the section you wanted. I quickly found a holiday present for my feline companions, went to the site, typed in the item number and completed my order.

My shopping with L.L. Bean went from A to B as well, or more accurately B.2. I was taken with the catalog’s gingerbread lighthouses and thought they’d be nifty for some family members. But, as I looked at the catalog and the Web site, I didn’t see an option for having delivery delayed from October (when I was placing the order) to early December (when I wanted them to arrive).

I called Bean’s 800 number and talked with a very nice representative, who checked with the vendor, which was shipping the items directly. She assured me shipping could be deferred until Dec. 1, so I ordered and crossed my fingers the Christmas-themed items wouldn’t show up early and become the largest trick-or-treat sweets ever.

Finally, my order from the What on Earth catalog was uneventful, even if I did first type in the wrong URL (www.whatonearth.com, instead of www.whatonearthcatalog.com) and was directed to a slightly disturbing news page about the potential damage that could occur when asteroids hit the earth.

Good heavens! I don’t have time for an apocalypse — I’ve got shopping to do!