Slim Jims May Become a Thing of the Past

Thanks to new U.S. Postal Service modifications last month, the tall-skinny catalogs affectionately known as slim-jims may soon be scarce.

The main sticking point with the new rules is the requirement for three non-perforated tabs to seal the letter-size booklets shut. The tabs, several mailers say, make it harder for customers to open the catalogs. The seals don’t do the cover design any favors, either. As a result, some catalogers are ditching the slim-jim books.

Multititle gifts mailer Miles Kimball is shifting its Walter Drake catalog from a slim-jim to a full-size format, says vice president of marketing Vicki Updike. Walter Drake’s 96-page slim-jim catalog, which measured 5-3/8½ × 8-3/4½, is now a 56- to 64-page book with a 7½ × 10-1/2½ trim size, she says.

Smithfield Specialty Foods Group mails three of its five titles — Smithfield Collection, The Peanut Shop and Rocke’s Meating Haus — as slim-jims. The company’s Smithfield Hams and Basse’s Choice catalogs are full-size books.

The slim booklets have worked well for Smithfield Specialty Foods, says Alexa Arnold Ricketts, director of catalog marketing, and the format made sense from an economic standpoint. But because of the tabbing requirements, Smithfield will convert the slim-jims to full-size catalogs starting in the fall.

The company is also considering comailing, reducing circulation, lowering paper weights and even consolidating catalog brands.

“It’s gotten so complicated now,” Ricketts says. “I’m not sure what the right answer is anymore, but we’ve looked at it from a loss of sales versus a loss of profit from the increased expense of the postage and tabbing.”
— TIM PARRY AND JIM TIERNEY, MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT