Eaton’s and Sears wrote the book on distance sales by putting a free catalogue in every household. Whether you lived in Toronto or Skinners Pond, everybody in the house studied at least one section of the catalogue.
My father’s first fiddle came from Eaton’s 90 years ago! He told me that he kept playing them and returning them until he received the fourth one which sounded like a $1,000 fiddle but he only had to pay nine dollars for it.
Mom’s furniture came from the catalogue. My first guitar came from Sears. When I was a kid, my clothes came from either Eaton’s or Sears. You could order a milking machine, a cream separator, a tractor and equipment for the farm, or even a house.
Every fall the Christmas catalogue arrived and by next fall it was memorized and definitely the most used book in the house.
It amazes me that companies like Amazon offer everything and more than was listed in the catalogues but now online and including items from all over the world. It could be your weekly groceries or a wedding dress from Taiwan.
My grandfather, my father and I used to devour the morning paper which arrived at the gate just as we finished morning milking. Now every morning, I read headlines from all over the world on my smart phone just after I check email and news about farming, which also comes from all over the world.
The news that I receive each morning now is only minutes old compared to what I read in the daily paper which was a day old at best; or farming news which arrived in 15 different magazines monthly.
Research — whether agricultural, medical, pharmaceutical, transportation or about a thousand other topics — used to often not be reported at all or maybe arrive in a glossy brochure produced by the company which was trying to sell you something. Now with a smart phone or tablet you can read non-biased research reports from all over the world and compare them.
When planning to purchase a new or used machine, farmers used to spend hours or days reading items for sale ads or making phone calls to dealers before choosing a machine. Now farmers can use a smart phone to screen exactly what they need, look at a picture, check the reliability of the machine and even the price of replacement parts before making a phone call to the seller.
Daily grain and cattle prices can be checked online before selling or buying. Small farms can direct sell maple syrup, honey, vegetables, government-inspected meat, wine, or dozens of other products over the net and ship them just like Amazon does.
A business has to be big enough to prosper but small enough to be directed with a smart phone.
I still cannot understand why some of the largest, most successful businesses didn’t change.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
