UNDER ATTACK
If you’re a cataloger there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Paper costs are up. Postal rate hikes come one after another. Fuel costs are through the roof.
Of course, not everything is going up. Consumer confidence? Waaaaay down, thanks to a plummeting stock market and numerous other factors. The economic environment, to put it mildly, is extremely challenging.
In recent months the catalog business has felt the sting. BlueSky Brands, stable of such properties as Winterthur, Bits and Pieces, and Paragon Gifts, went belly-up in March. Both Sharper Image and Lillian Vernon filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this winter. At press time, Sharper Image’s chairman had resigned to pursue a reported interest in buying the company, while Taylor Corp. had won an auction to buy Vernon.
Direct talked with a number of folks in and around the business to get their take on how catalogers can survive
