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In a First, Amazon Begins Mailing 70-page Printed Holiday Toy Catalog To US Homes (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

Amazon is shipping its first-ever printed holiday toy catalog, titled "A Holiday of Play," to millions of customers in the U.S. starting this month, the company said. From a report: "Amazon is excited to offer a new way for customers to shop for toys this holiday season," Amazon said in a statement. The catalog comes with a distinct retro look, invoking memories of old Toys "R" Us catalogs that made the now-defunct toy retailer so successful. Some of the featured toys come with a QR code, allowing readers to instantly scan and shop for more products. Readers can also scan the product images in the catalog with their Amazon App to get more information and add them to their shopping cart. The move is Amazon's latest in following the playbook of traditional brick-and-mortar retailers.

13 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Perfect timing with the demise of Sears by klashn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Perfect timing with the demise of Sears!! Amazon will take over the world!

    1. Re:Perfect timing with the demise of Sears by klashn · · Score: 2

      They do have Amazon Prime Services - where an "Amazon Turk Rabbit" (Amazon's take on Task Rabbit) comes to your house for a fixed fee to install or fix small things in your house. They may even in the future have the infrastructure to open up their warehouse to consumers and take on Sam's Club or Costco.

    2. Re: Perfect timing with the demise of Sears by reanjr · · Score: 2

      It's not Amazon's fault the industry is so inefficient. Wages are padded through bonding and other insurances, which give the consumer piece of mind, but drives up the cost of labor by limiting the labor pool. Amazon is essentially replacing the bonding and insurance, thus driving down costs to where they should be.

      Fixing shit around the house is something every man in the 50s was just expected to do. It doesn't deserve anything more than $10/hr.

    3. Re:Perfect timing with the demise of Sears by Iamthecheese · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This won't go anywhere; the internet makes underwear ads obsolete.

      --
      If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
  2. Why didn't they mail a USB stick by goombah99 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Paper. It never goes away. That's interesting but I'm not sure what to make of it. Angry people will say it is an abomination and needs to go away by force. But tactile input media seems important. On the otherhande I used to never think a kindle could replace a paperback. Now I prefer the kindle.

    What I do miss however is that it screws up my photograpic recall. I recall facts and images in equations in text books in part, by where they are on the page. The kindle eradicates that so my recall goes down. I don't care about that for pulp fiction but for text and jouranl articles it matters.

    My fingers also remember what pages things were near.

    The other nice thing about paper is that grouping effect. You dont' just get what you were looking for but also things you might be interested in that are related.

    We'ver lost that with academic search engine. It used to be that half the value of reading a journal was the article after the one you searched for was more important.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  3. Hope they don't use glossy paper... by Kenja · · Score: 3, Funny

    glossy paper makes for a poor fire starter.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  4. So Amazon is the new Sears? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Amazon is the new Sears.

    1. Re:So Amazon is the new Sears? by MobyDisk · · Score: 2

      without the local distributors.

      They ARE building local distributors!

      Actually, Amazon IS making local distributors. They bought whole foods, and they are building retail stores. They have one in Seattle and at least one in New York.

    2. Re:So Amazon is the new Sears? by paiute · · Score: 2

      This will come full circle when the Amazon catalog has a women's lingerie section.

      --
      If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
  5. Re:just the toys ? by EvilSS · · Score: 3

    Man I hated flipping through those as a kid to get to the toy section. Until one day I didn't.

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  6. not a cue barcode? by williamyf · · Score: 2

    What is this barcode abomination I Hear about? Cues is the way to go for the full retro feeling.

    That would have been a wonderfull excuse to get my 5 :cuecats out of storage and party like it is 2000 all over again!

    --
    *** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
  7. Re:The Toys I didn't get from Sears by NormalVisual · · Score: 2

    Well with the www, we will always have access to old picts of old toys, so I doubt any kids are going to drool over these catalogs. Or will they?

    They won't, because you had to have actually been there as a kid before video games to understand just how cool the Enterprise Bridge and Space:1999 Eagle playsets really were, along with all the Evel Knievel and SSP toys. You also had to have been there to understand the depth of envy you felt when your friend got one and you didn't.

    --
    Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
  8. Re:Coulda Been Sears by magarity · · Score: 3, Informative

    I STILL think Sears could eat Amazon's lunch, but I know it won't happen; they will continue to evaporate to nothing.

    Sorry but you're a little behind on current events. Sears could have eaten Amazon's lunch 15 years ago but they're in bankruptcy proceedings. And not the reorganization kind but the 'sell everything off and liquidate because we give up' kind.