James Edgar
August 26, 2008 / 17:40

I remeber going there too. In the 70's. I loved that whole experiance. We bought a BBQ there once and my Mom asked and paid for a $125 one and they gave her a $275 one. That might be why they went out of Business.

Carol
August 26, 2008 / 17:58

Absolutely!! I always thought it was the cat's meow and I, too, loved the catalogue. I guess with WalMart the writing was on the wall. As for catalogues these days, Staples is now the most fun. Everyone else is going online. I feel old.

Stephanie Wilkinson
August 26, 2008 / 19:17

I LOVED Conumers. I remember I bought a watch there for 19.99. It was a digital one - a beautiful Remex. I know I still have it somewhere but it was worth the 10 weeks of saving allowance for.

There was another store, I think, called Shoprite. Same idea but not nearly as good as Consumers.

felix
August 26, 2008 / 20:13

Yes sir, I sure do remember heading over to the local CD with my dad and filling out the magic form with the little golf pencil. Ah, the memories.

Alison
August 26, 2008 / 21:09

I loved looking at the diamonds, engagement and wedding rings as a kid...Strikes me a bit odd now to pick out your wedding rings where you tick off a box and they roll out like a 24....

Toronto Mike
August 26, 2008 / 22:40

I just checked out the Consumers Distributing Wikipedia page. Btw, this entry is now #5 when you Google Consumers Distributing.

The first Consumers Distributing store was opened in 1957 by Jack Stupp in Toronto. The company was taken public in 1969, but later sold to Provigo, a Quebec-based grocery retailer.

Hudson's Bay Company, which operates Canadian department stores under the Bay and Zellers names, opened the "Shop-Rite" catalogue chain in competition. It was closed in 1982. US competition was mainly from the shuttered chains Best Products (also known simply as Best) and Service Merchandise, both which operated chains of catalog showroom retail stores in the United States.

Consumers sought bankruptcy protection in 1996 after an aggressive expansion strategy failed to make the company sustainable. Sales had dropped from $1.8 billion in 1988 to $580 million in 1995. Consumers Distributing was plagued by products being frequently out of stock, and by new warehouse format stores that allowed customers to retrieve products themselves.

Consumers Distributing was plagued more by the perception of things "always being out of stock" due to the catalogue shopping nature of the store. In a store like Wal-Mart, customers seeking a particular product go to the store to shop. With the catalogue concept, the customer selects the item either at home while looking through the company's catalogue, or by a group of catalogues in the front of every store. Once the customer picks out the merchandise that he or she wants, the customer then goes to the counter where the clerk then goes to retrieve it off the warehouse shelves. It was not uncommon for a customer to wait on line only to be told by a clerk that the merchandise was not in stock. Consumers did not have a computerized inventory until the late 1980s, which meant that the company was not able to track what merchandise was in the stores or what merchandise was wanted by customers.

When a product is out of stock, or unavailable from the manufacturer, this creates an "out of stock" problem for a catalogue store, which it does not create for a store who displays their in-stock items. When a customer goes to Wal-mart, they see that they have ten different products in stock. At Consumers, the customer chose one item, which may not have been in stock. They did not see that there were 15 other similar items that are in stock.

Consumers initiated several initiatives to dispel this "out of stock" perception including "super stores" that had all of the available, in-stock products on display; and free home delivery or store to store transfer for items that were not in stock. They also implemented a state-of-the-art inventory system that could check the availability of other stores in real time, and also would suggest alternate products at the store which were in stock. Consumers was one of the first to initiate this "real time" stock check and prepayment of products available at other branches and the main warehouse. Unfortunately, these initiatives, including the superstore expansion, costly free delivery, and costly new inventory management software overextended the company. This, and increasing competition from American retailers such as Wal-Mart and Sears led to the company's bankruptcy in 1996.

Shirley Jones once represented Consumers Distributing in television commercials based on the theme "Consumers, we wrote the book, on-savings!"

Andrew
August 27, 2008 / 07:55

I wish I had posted this earlier.
I had a Consumer's not far from where I lived. Like Mike, I would get the catalog and circle what I wanted and with either Birthday money or something else, I would make the trip. Almost everytime the item I wanted was "OUT OF STOCK". Mostly I wanted G.I. Joe figures or jeeps but they never had them in. I remember filing out about 6 tickets before I just gave up.
I loved and hated the place all at once. Eventually I just stopped going.

Rob
August 27, 2008 / 12:19

Yeahhh...Consumers...If I am not mistaken there was also a Shop-rite it was the same idea as Consumers Distributing. They too had a catalouge....Anyone else remember???

Rob
August 27, 2008 / 12:21

Dont forget Shop-Rite too!

Ajax Mike
August 27, 2008 / 12:36

I learned to phone ahead with the catalog items to have them check if it was in stock first. I remember getting the original Shockwave Transformers figure there.

CurlyQ
August 27, 2008 / 16:04

Remember it? I worked at the one at Six Points for my last year of high school. Interestingly enough, here in the UK there is a chain called Argos (really! argos.co.uk) that's exactly the same. And they're still going strong - actually half the stuff in my apartment is from there. I just took a look at the catalogue which is sitting beside my sofa like a freaking coffee table and it's eighteen.hundred.pages.

Annemarie
August 27, 2008 / 22:14

Yes, I remember it. I used to go to the one @ Lawrence & Dufferin. Then it was a BiWay, now it's a Blinds To Go.

Lori
August 28, 2008 / 01:23

I used to LOVE filling out the little forms at the stations in the store here in St. Catharines! Oh the memories! There was a similar place in Niagara Falls NY that stayed open a bit longer--I am now trying to remember its name--Brand Names mabye it might have been called?

swordplay
October 22, 2008 / 18:58

how can u forget the little blue pencils....great memories

Karen
December 30, 2008 / 22:52

I was actually able to get my hands on 3 catalogues, one from the 70's, 80's and 90's. I'm proud of my finds. ;)

Karen
December 30, 2008 / 22:54

I was able to get my hands on 3 catalogues, one from the 70's, one from the 80's and one from the 90's.

Linus
January 2, 2009 / 16:50

From the time I was a kid, the place always had a bit of magic: Dream a little ... fill out a blue-inked, white piece of paper ... and ... ummm ... sometimes you might get exactly what you asked for.

During my college years (where my areas of study were economics, business administration, marketing), in the late 1970's and early 1980's, I worked part time at store #47, in Cambridge, Ontario.

I loved the place. Part of what inspired me to get a job there was to improve upon the things I enjoyed about CD. While not quite the band of inspirational free-thinkers who had invented milk and honey, I was surprised at the relatively large ego of the bureaucracy on high ... where customer satisfaction and loyalty seemed to matter not.

At store level, I never viewed a customer leaving dissatisfied or empty-handed as a good thing. Without being asked or told, I would often quietly work the system to find out what could be done to improve/expedite things to everyone's betterment.

No sour grapes here, but even as a wet-nosed college kid, I was surprised at how little attention was given by upper management to ideas put forth by forward-thinking customers, workers or store managers.

Walmart or not, I think that Consumer's Distributing could have gone on to become a modern superstar among current retailers. A bit of intuitiveness, imagination, the ability to listen and smaller egos could have gone a long way for them. It's too bad that they are gone.

Linus
January 2, 2009 / 17:16

In addition to ShopRite (which was not ever a great shopping experience), there was also a string of CARDINAL catalogue stores.

The John Galt Centre, in Cambridge, Ontario (now the Cambridge Centre Mall) had a Cardinal store (a very poor buying experience, as I recall). When they went out of business, some of their inventory found its way into Consumer's Distributing ... I was there helping to pack it up.

Liz
January 12, 2009 / 15:29

To Karen or anyone else who may have old catalogues from the 1980's:

I have been looking for a 1984/85 Consumers catalogue for ages. For sentimental reasons, I would like a scan from one of the jewelry pages. I would be willing to buy the whole catalogue, but a scan of a long lost gift would be just as nice! Please post if anyone has this catalogue and would be willing to send me an image of this page, or is willing to sell their copy. Thank you!!!

Kevin
January 12, 2009 / 18:44

I worked at CD for about a year transporting goods to the stores. I will be honest, the guy and girl running the transportation dept. T**** J**** and ? where real crooks. They had drivers that would steal jewelry for them as the trucks where being unloaded.

leann
March 11, 2009 / 02:28

I am looking to buy a service merchandise catalogue(the one with a butterfly ring on it) my mom had that ring and when she died it was left to me and it got stolen. I want to have a ring made just like it. If you know where I can get one please let me know. Thank You!!!

Kristie
March 28, 2009 / 10:46

I also am looking for a jewelery image out of a 1981 or 1982 catalogue. My parents gave me a ring for my 16th birtday with a beautiful poem about my birth attached to it. The ring disappeared some years ago and I would like to find a picture of it. My mother is very ill with dimentia and I would like to bring this memory back to her if possible while I still can. Any information would be greatly appreciated as to where I could get this image.

Dianne Field Holmes
April 25, 2009 / 12:22

I worked at the CD Distribution center on Northwest Drive from 1978 to 1983. I'm looking for others. I saw Mary Edwards holding a stop sign on Dixie Rd where there was road work being done. I waived and she frantically waived back, we were happy to see each other. When I got home, Edward and Terry from my building, told me she had died in a car accident a week previous, on April 19th. She was only 29 and had 2 precious little girls. RIP Also, I bought a bar from there in 1979 and still have it.

Franz
May 4, 2009 / 17:22

My girlfriend and I bought our weddingrings and 2 engagementrings in 1980,the weddingbands have a small diamond and the engagementring for her had a diamond,that stuck out quite high and my engagemnetring was a nice red Ruby and we still enjoy them as a married couple since 1980.All 4 items for 400 Dollars,they had them there in the store and we just bought them right there,no ordering.All the rings are 10 carat Gold.That was in Hamilton,Ontario

Sky Rider
May 6, 2009 / 19:29

Working at CD, I always felt SO guilty for saying that I couldn't hand over what the customer wanted, especially at Christmas. It was a TERRIBLE place to work at, and I'm glad I jumped ship when I did.

Curtis
June 13, 2009 / 23:43

We as kids would frantically search the catalogues and we would make our Christmas lists from those. We would be given a dollar-limit,and would write the product#,the page and price, and IF THEY DIDN"T HAVE THAT, we would begrudgingly write alternatives. I used to love waiting with my dad for his name to be called to pick up the stuff. I actually think I had the same Citizen stereo,also from CD. DId it come with 2 dark-grey book-shelf speakers with a black mesh screen (that didn't come off the speaker)?

Chris
June 28, 2009 / 18:08

Yeah, I remember getting one of the first digital watches with the red l.e.d display at the one on Merivale Rd. in Ottawa.....

Newsradio6
August 20, 2009 / 16:01

I remember going to the store near Duffern and Lawrence in North York as a kid. My best friend and I both bought our first CB Radios there. Coleco CB40's which were little more than toys but still fun. About a year later we went back with more money and bought "real" cb radios. I remember filling out the forms...$169 for the radio. The first one we wanted was out of stock (of course!) but the upgraded us to the next one (a 189$ unit) for the same price as it was in stock!

Romancing the Vinyl
January 20, 2010 / 07:43

This has been really interesting but how do I bookmark this? I tried Digg but do I have to sign up first?

Carlos
March 2, 2010 / 11:03

Hi i was just going through some stuff i had, and i found my old comsumers credit card.
maby it's still active, Ha, Ha, Yes i do remember shoping there, every Christmas we would go through the line up and then to find they were out of stock, then had to rush to another branch to try again.
Oh Tea and i also found a catalogue stil rapped in plastic.