Argos to stop printing catalogue after almost 50 years | Hacker News Reader

Argos to stop printing catalogue after almost 50 years

theguardian.com

100 pointsrbanffy94 comments

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For those not from the UK, who don't know how Argos operates:

1. Browse a paper catalogue with thousands of items (audio equipment, kitchen accessories, jewellery, toys, ...).

2. Write down the 7-digit code for each item you want to buy, on a slip of paper.

3. Go to the nearest Argos store (there are many).

4. Queue (line up).

5. Hand the paper to the cashier and pay for the items.

6. Wait ~5 mins until your order number is called, then collect your items.

(Everything is in a warehouse behind/below the store.)

This how it worked almost 40 years ago when I first shopped there. Today, it's very similar, except that:

- you can reserve online, so you don't have to worry about an item being out of stock

- you can pay extra and have the items delivered

- they have a much thicker catalogue, with many items that are delivery-only (similar to any other online retailer)

In the last 15 years or so you could use a terminal to look up the number and pay. You just give the receipt to the counter.

Right, I should have mentioned that. No longer needing to queue for a cashier was a big change.

And even better, there are terminals where you can browse the catalogue and choose an item, basically the same workflow as making a reservation online. But those terminals don't take payments. So you enter a code word, then walk over to one of the payment terminals, enter the code word again, and pay!

It's kind of horrific UX, but i can see how it would have been quick and cheap to ship, and it works!

I think they abandoned the code word thing. Now you just get a numeric code on a printed ticket. I thought it was cool but I'm sure it was confusing to a lot of customers.

For the record, Argos also operated in Ireland too, and hopefully most readers won't be surprised to learn it hasn't been part of the UK for about 100 years.

Otherwise the Argos nostalgia is identical.

Only since 1996. Before that a visit to Argos was a must for people in the Republic who went on shopping visits to Belfast.

As a UK person visiting Ireland for the first time it was fun to notice all the things that are the same and the ones that are the same but a bit different. Like Ireland has Primark, but it's called Penneys, and you have the same post boxes as the UK except they are green instead of red. We all have the same plug sockets. We have pretty much the same road signs but Ireland has YIELD to the UK's GIVE WAY. The font used on Irish speed limit signs is almost unreadable at a distance, but your pedestrian crossings are the best with that awesome tik -tik -tik WAKAWAKAWAKA noise.

EDIT: as corrected below, Penneys is the original, Primark is the name change. Apologies!

> same and the ones that are the same but a bit different

I think the UK needs their schools to study our shared(!) history/past 800 years of colonialism.

> Like Ireland has Primark, but it's called Penneys

Penneys is an Irish founded & HQed company. "The world has Penneys, but it's called Primark" would be more correct - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primark

> The Penneys brand is not used outside of Ireland because it is owned elsewhere by American retailer J. C. Penney.

My Irish friend usually makes a similar response to yours. If I notice something is the same she says - "well you know, we do have a shared history, of course things are the same"

If I notice something is different she says - "well you know, it's a different country, of course things are different"

But in either case she bristles a bit, like these things ought to be neither surprising nor interesting to me. Like the UK ought to teach the colour of Irish postboxes in schools and of course the road signs are in kilometres and we use the Euro but we drive on the left and have the same plug sockets. It is all a sign of my colonial arrogance I am sure.

If we’re being pedantic, Primark/Penneys is a subsidiary of ABF, which is a British company.

Your attempt at pedantry has failed.

> Penneys is an Irish founded & HQed company

Primark/Penneys is still an Irish founded company whose headquarters and decision making happens in Ireland, regardless of who the owners are.

> pedestrian crossings are the best with that awesome tik -tik -tik WAKAWAKAWAKA noise

These are present in a few European countries; my favourite variant was visiting Stockholm for the Eurovision song contest, where some had been reprogrammed to play beepy but recognisable versions of Sweden's last two winning songs. So you could listen to a ticky version of "Euphoria" while waiting that switched to a fast version of "Heroes" while it was time to cross.

The postboxes really are the same. They were all installed during the occupation, and still have the on the front the initials of whichever English monarch was around at the time.

And of course the important point was that the catalogues were given away free so you'd have one in your home. Imagine it! Being able to sit on your sofa and browse everything that's available in the shop.

I doubt there were many houses in the 90s and early 2000s that didn't have an Argos catalogue in them.

On a similar note my local yellow pages was delivered this week (I know, i'm shocked it still exists too). Its gone from something you could beat a medium sized bear to death with to more like a modest paper back.

Sign of the times i think.

They had a scummy sales technique as I remember it. When you owned a business line you were automatically entitled to a single line entry in your business' category but they'd phone you up and try and sell you a display ad as though that was the only option. Then you'd point out to them that you had an entry anyway and they'd denigrate those as ones no one would ever see. It was yuck getting a call from them.

In my family (of seven) we started to have no less than three catalogues in the house. Two were for us children, otherwise there could be arguments about who was reading the Argos catalogue. One was for my parents, and this would stay in a usable condition while the other two got slowly destroyed.

Around Christmas time the Argos catalogues came out to give us inspiration while writing our letters to Father Christmas.

Screwfix uses the same model doesn't it? I think they still have catalogs. Given that elderly people and very young children might prefer a catalog they may be missing out on a bit of business, but the costs of the department producing the catalog is likely to be huge!

Screwfix is the Argos of DIY.

Toolstation also.

Ideal business model for Covid times it turns out.

When I was growing up they had these little devices by the catalogues in the shop as well. You could go in, flip through the catalogue and find something, then type in the code the this device and see how many were left in stock. My brother and I would each try to find an item with the highest amount of stock.

The idea of walking into a shop, seeing everything they had while standing in one place, and then finding out how much stock they had was magical as a child in the late 90's/early 2000's. It also meant you wouldn't queue up to pay unless you knew the item was in stock which saved a lot of time. Sometimes the queues got pretty huge on a Saturday just because of the sheer range of items.

Yeah, I liked the stock checker devices. I would just type in random digits to see if I could find a valid code. Also I sometimes stole one of the little blue pens.

I'm sure everyone in the UK has at least one Argos pen and Ikea pencil somewhere!

They have checker machines now that can also put through the order. I've used them withinn last 5 years. It's an interesting hybrid or warehouse and retailer. Very handy. Lived across the street from one. Walked home with new TV in my hands the day I moved in.

We had these in the states as well, many years ago, "Brand Names". You can almost smell the idea bubbling up again, some startup is going to call it revolutionary.

"Disruptive", shirley?

There used to be a similar chain called Service Merchandise in the US https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_Merchandise

The store had the same setup, a big show room with a pickup counter and conveyor belt from the basement. They had terminals throughout the store with a catalog you could flip though and you placed your order through the terminal.

story: I must have been around 10-11 at the time and my father was browsing Casio watches. I started paging through a catalog and come across the electronics section. I proceed to stave off boredom by building an order for a honkin Pioneer stereo system complete with laser disc player. Somehow I accidentally hit purchase. So I quietly walked away and pretend nothing happened. 10 minutes later we're on line and I hear the fake name I entered being called. I saw the order in the corner: a huge mountain of boxes: speakers, cassette deck, CD player, receiver, Laser disc player etc. I was scared but they didn't know who put in the order and kept calling the name until we left. I'm sure the stock pickers were mad as hell.

Damn, it really feels like something is about to be lost here. As a child, crawling the Argos catalogue, day dreaming about saving up for some tacky product was somewhat wholesome. At Christmas I remember arguing over looking through the book at Christmas!

For me it caused me to realize the value of different items, especially saving up from a paper-round and having to hand over weeks of hard-earned cash for some goods.

There's something about the pacing of pre-internet era. Emotionally it made you wonder more. Both a plus and a minus, but to me I consider slower tempo better than the hectic instantaneous way of today.

I can relate. Countless hours reading the whole Argos catalogue (and I mean the whole thing, minus women's jewellery). To those who grew up outside the UK, Argos is an icon in the retail space. This is the end of an era, as they just become another Amazon.

Ah yeah, the Argos catalogue. I used to walk past their stores on my way to work. You'd see hundreds of them on pallets outside the store for people to take. By the end of each day the pile would always be much smaller as they were pretty popular.

During lockdown here in the UK I've used Argos quite a few times and I've been pretty impressed with their service. I've got same day deliveries on a whole bunch of items which Amazon were going to take 3-4 days to deliver (even on prime).

That and not having to trawl through hundreds of cloned products and not knowing if reviews are legitimate, it was a pretty relaxing process.

> I've got same day deliveries on a whole bunch of items > which Amazon were going to take 3-4 days to deliver > (even on prime).

During the early part of lockdown, there was a period of several weeks when Wahl hair clippers were impossible to find in Argos (online or store) or Amazon.co.uk, even though many similar models were plentiful here in the US (and even being sold at a discount).

It was a frustrating experience searching on the Argos web site (as you can't filter out items which aren't in stock locally). But the popular models came in stock at Argos before they did at Amazon.co.uk (at least first party, regular price).

I mean, in some ways they have been consistently beating amazon. They are usually my first go-to(or were before lockdown) because nearly everything could be delivered same day, while Prime Now has such a limited selection it's not even worth checking. Also the ability to just go somewhere and collect the item you want is a massive advantage over amazon.

Very similar feelings for me. There were two catalogs I used to browse regularly as a child in the UK, Argos (+index) and the Maplin electronics catalog.

I vaguely remember visiting an Index, but they're long gone now. I think Littlewoods was another catalogue retailer.

Ah yes Maplins :-) and for work The RS (not Radio Shack) and Black Box catalogues.

My first place the electronics shop had a special account for RS - I remember my co-worker buying joysticks from RS to hook up to his BBC B

It's definitely sad, but nostalgia often is, I think the last time I had an Argos catalogue in the house was probably more than 20 years ago! It's a good time to retire the thing, less paper going to waste.

Very warm memories of leafing through that thing as a child though, I distinctly remember being fascinated by the digital watch pages full of Casio's and other watches that did all sorts of unnecessary nonsense (TV remote watch, anyone?) - but as a child these pages were full of desire.

In some ways the catalogue shopping experience seemed better than what internet shopping is like today, leafing through the pages or flipping to relevant, organised section of the book to look at the things just felt, I dunno, slower, more pleasurable? Might be that nostalgia kicking in, but looking at Amazon.co.uk now there's no 'window shopping' experience at all, it's the same UI as they had in 2000 just with a bit of paint on it. Rows and rows of products displayed on a grid, sometimes clones of products put directly next to each other, not really clear who you are buying from until you read the small print on the product page.

The reading and re-reading built the anticipation and made the purchase more satisfying because you invested so much time into thinking about it beforehand.

There is also that you could be 100% certain that the product was genuine and from a brand that you had heard of, and Argos sold a full range, if you wanted to buy a product that would last you could. Contrast to the modern Amazon experience where you search, you get hundreds of results of near-identical items from weird-sounding brands you have never heard of, and you pick one at random knowing that it is going to be a piece of junk that won't last but it's so cheap you don't care. There's no pleasure in shopping like that, it is purely utilitarian and transactional.

I used to imagine out entire households with the Argos catalogue. Even down the choosing the toaster and bed linen. The nostalgia is strong, but I agree, it's not been replaced by anything approaching the same experience for laid back browsing at home.

> unnecessary nonsense (TV remote watch, anyone?)

Ah, the Casio CMD-40, pictured as item #14 on http://dev.argosbookofdreams.co.uk/1995-96.html#page=100

This has been my daily driver watch, non-stop every single day, since the 1990s.

When I first wore it, it was "futuristic". Now it is "retro" or "vintage".

Answers to FAQs:

- Yes, really.

- Yes, the remote control still works.

- Yes, even with brand new smart TVs.

- There is a reference list of TV manufacturers, and you have to select a code per manufacturer (e.g., LG / Sony / etc). For basic functionality (e.g., volume up, power off), this hasn't changed since the 1990s.

- The VHS remote control functionality is still present, but I haven't used it for decades.

- For new-fangled things like DVD players (or even smart TVs), any remote control button can be "learned" - i.e., point the manufacturer's remote at the watch, press a button, and tell the watch to remember and mimic what it just saw.

- It was only "recently" no longer manufacturered new, and this isn't the same one that I first wore in the 1990s.

- The strap and battery have been replaced, but otherwise I've owned the current one since new.

- Like graphics calculators, the sale price hasn't ever dropped. Even into the 2010s, it was still possible to buy for ~£40. Now that it is not manufactured anymore, it has become an appreciating asset (see, e.g., eBay, where "new" condition watches are routinely sold for >£90).

- OK, here's a picture. https://imgur.com/ivmBFaa

Wow what a trip down memory lane. Thank you for sharing!

I bought the Nintendo Donkey Kong Jr from here -http://dev.argosbookofdreams.co.uk/1986-87.html#page=275, as well as Snoopy Tennis back in ’87, and I still have both.

My son and play it every other day. Amazing stuff. :)

I had the same, only wore it a few years until it broke - but I've kept every watch I ever owned in a box full of memories.

I loved that watch, so much programmable fun messing with TV channels and irritating teachers and sales reps everywhere

> the last time I had an Argos catalogue in the house was probably more than 20 years ago!

If that was normal then we don't need to worry about

> less paper going to waste.

My kids love looking through the argos catalogue and planning what to spend their pocket money on

Agree, this is very sad and nostalgic.

When I was growing up in the 90s, we would keep an argos catalogue in the rest room. Sounds weird now that I'm typing this out.

Spent countless hours (over time) browsing toys and games. The novelty of each turn and then replacing the entire thing with the new one.

I also miss the little blue pens that argos and index had along with the small paper for your order submission.

The pricing on the catalogue would be in blocks so you'd have to work out the price by entering the code for the specified product into the calculator-like gadget that would rest on the counter.

Good Times. As you grow older, things like this being phased out make you realise how long it's been.

Someone has gone to the trouble of scanning many of them, going back to 1975

http://dev.argosbookofdreams.co.uk/

Thanks for posting this, it really takes me right back to my childhood in the 80s of thumbing through it before Christmas, to the point I was sure I could actually smell the pages again! What's also quite surprising is how the actual price of a lot of goods in there has barely changed in 30 years.

Wow, that is fantastic, and presented in a really nice way with those turning pages. I wonder who owns it, if you remove the dev. from the start of the url it redirects to argos.co.uk

This would be great as a full screen tablet app / site.

It seems like it is owned by argos, the cookie warning comes from a sainsburys domain which is the parent company.

Wow, the memories!

Me and my brother used to play a game where you could choose one item you would want on every page, but you had to start from the beginning of the catalogue.

Going through the the household section was like quickly eating your greens before you got to the delicious dessert of toys!

You can browse the archive of catalogs here[1]

Revisiting the catalogs from when I was a kid I am struck at both the small range of toys available (of which I can remember almost every one!) and the high prices...

[1]http://dev.argosbookofdreams.co.uk/

This page has an almost Proustian quality: http://dev.argosbookofdreams.co.uk/1988-89.html#page=300

I was in awe of that Starcom bomber. Despite the fact that we didn't get the Starcom cartoon in the UK!

I wish someone would do that with the Maplins (UK electronics store) catalogue. I had a hankering to browse through one from the 80s in a fit of nostalgia the other day but the best I could find was an ebay listing for one for £50!

The covers were done by prominent SF artists and were amazing: https://www.rewindmuseum.com/maplincatalogues.htm

Here's a quick video on the Argos catalogue for our overseas readers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggOa9aSG-Ow

I must have spent hours going through that catalogue as a kid. I still remember the excitement of getting a new catalogue and going through it with my sister. I think it was the unknown of what you might find that made it fun. We'd spend hours circling things in different coloured pens to let our parents know what we wanted for our birthdays and Christmas.

I suppose this move makes sense - everyone has access to the online catalogue now. I can't remember the last time I used a physical Argos catalogue, although I still go to the Argos store every few months.

It's probably mostly nostalgia, but I can't help but feel something has been lost. You don't browse an online store like you do a catalogue. Online you need to search or filter based on what you think, that sense of unknown and surprise isn't really there anymore. In fact I've never had a shopping experience online that comes anywhere near that satisfaction of browsing a physical catalogue of items. It's certainly more functional and practical, but it's also more bland. I find a lot of things to be like that online. Interactions feel less fulfilling, reading feels less enjoyable, pictures look less "real". Perhaps it's just me, but there is something inherently disconnected about how we interact with the world through a screen.

Given the number of Argos stores I always thought Amazon would have swept in 3-5 years ago and bought them as a step closer to "last mile delivery" in the UK.

Their current owners (Sainsbury's) might be resistant to that since Amazon is intent on competing in groceries.

They do have a deal with eBay to offer parcel pickup point services.

Ah! I didn't know Sainsbury's owned Argos.

As we all know our high streets are failing hard, I always pictured (given big enough tax breaks) old/traditional high street companies (Curry's / House of Fraser etc...) would literally just have shop fronts much like Argos for click and collect with a smallish warehouse (but only order online) - entice punters into towns for click and collect while boosting smaller/local businesses (restaurants/coffee shops / boutiques etc...)

I have a feeling C19 has well and truly punched the nail in the high street coffin.

> I have a feeling C19 has well and truly punched the nail in the high street coffin.

'Cxx' usually means the 'Xth century', by the way. (Even this year, with context, that briefly confused me as I wondered what the 1800s did to the high street and how bustling it was before!)

Interesting. Where are you from? I've never seen that syntax for centuries before.

FWIW I'm from the UK and was taught this notation in high school history classes (though the C encircled the 19 when hand-written).

That said I had trouble parsing the "C19" too so I don't think I've seen it used in print much. I tried to read it as a UK postcode zone first :) (I used to live in SW19)

UK. Wikipedia doesn't have an explicit explanation/history of it that I can find, but it does feature on disambiguation pages, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C17

I'm familiar with it and from UK but think it's mostly commonly used in academia and don't know where else it might be commonly seen.

I've seen it used somewhat often in the UK (almost entirely in academia as far as I can recall), at least frequently enough that I've used it in my own writings despite not studying history.

At a quick search, I can find a couple of sources that suggest it for notetaking at least:

* University of Portsmouth (listed under "Common general abbreviations") https://www.port.ac.uk/student-life/help-and-advice/study-sk...

* University of South Australia (under "Common symbols and abbreviations") https://lo.unisa.edu.au/pluginfile.php/1687781/mod_resource/...

Also never heard this before. Does this extend to BC?

Not that I'm aware of, but mostly I encounter it as a shorthand for recent centuries, in news or whatever, I'm not a historian or otherwise encountering much discussion of BC centuries, so I wouldn't like to say for sure.

I didn't know they were owned by Sainsbury's. That explains the recent Argos "pick up points" that have begun to pop up usually attached to a Sainsbury's store.

As a swede I am guessing this is like how we joke about there always being an IKEA/Biltema catalog in all bathrooms.

A podcast episode about the catalogue: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05z4pb5

Comet. Same model of shop. I got a belt drive turntable kit, kept it for years. Funny thing: you flicked the motor in to life to make sure it spun the right way. My backstop broke.. i could play records backwards. Speed shift was moving the belt on bigger or smaller pulley wheels. Great deck. (It really was a kit. Motor, belt and paper template to cut holes in your own slab of wood and a beautiful shiny turntable. I wanted a rega planar but the budget wouldn't permit...

Maybe comet was Scotland only?

"You know where to Come"

I thought Comet was like Currys though

the comet in edinburgh was argos-like warehouse, you saw one of each thing on shelves and asked grey men behind a dull counter to fetch the box.

People may not know that Argos is what the: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Shield_Stamps scheme morphed into:

“To retain business, Green Shield allowed customers to buy gifts from the catalogue with a mix of stamps and cash, but soon the catalogue became cash-only, and the operation was re-branded as Argos.”

Saying that, you probably need to be pretty old to remember Green Shield stamps at all.

grin and the free glasses at the petrol stations

It'll be interesting to see if the laminated loose-leaf catalogues that you look at in the shops go too. They have monitors that you can search for stuff with, but I think they will lose the serendipitous impulse buy as people flick through physical pages. (And the kid pester-power effects.)

Same day delivery £3.95 has been really helpful during lockdown.

Huh. I wish they'd advertised that more. I totally missed that and it would have useful, I didn't even think to check Argos.

Agreed, shame their mobile app is bug ridden. I experienced their whole website loading in a 3D Secure iframe at one point, and missing order at another.

I've used Argos 5-6 times during lockdown and had no idea an app existed, i'm still using the website like its 2009....

They kept that one a secret.

Argos is great as an Amazon alternative in the UK and often more convenient as you can pick up at any Sainsburys (there’s lots of small local ones) and they do same day delivery on a lot of things.

This brings back childhood memories of flipping through Service Merchandise [0] catalogs. Never heard of Argos, but it appears to be the same kind of thing.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_Merchandise

I seem to remember a sketch with Rowland Rivron as an airline pilot flying a plane and imagining bombing various things, including this line:

"Bang! There goes the Argos catalogue showroom"

Can't find any reference to it online. Think it was in the Young Ones maybe? Anyway seems sadly appropriate today!

I think there’s still room for catalogues in the same way there is room for magazines in a digital world. Some stores like restoration hardware use the medium very well, as a marketing channel that customers actually enjoy and willingly opt into.

The last of the catalogue shopping - going the same way as Marshall Ward, GUS and Empire Stores.

The latter had a pay over 20 weeks facility that was a Godsend in many areas and really helped at Christmas.

Surprised it's taken this long. I feel nostalgic when I think of Argos, but yeah, really archaic concept now.

As a child I use to spend late nights reading the Argos catalogue, dreaming of all the toys to be had.

Canadians may be familiar with Consumers Distributing which died in the 80s or 90s: www.cdarchive.ca

Argos still exists?

Yeah. I use them instead of Amazon.

Sainsbury's bought it. One interesting consequence of that is, since newer Argos stores were now physically inside a Sainsbury's and Sainsbury's sells e.g. food that people need in order to live it was possible to purchase products from Argos (online obviously, they won't let you stand around looking at a catalogue like it's 1985 because there is a pandemic) and just collect them with your groceries, during the middle of lockdown.

You can only buy essential products like bread, eggs, chewing gum... and a Nintendo Switch.

I'm sure this didn't hurt the Argos side of the company compared to its competitors that were closed entirely.

The main supermarket chain obviously did very well, it was even allowed to do stuff that's normally prohibited by competition authorities, since "Not starving the population" beats "Not encouraging monopoly abuse". For example suppose a small town has two small grocery stores. Normally it's illegal for either store to agree that the other can just supply everything to them and save sending twice the trucks of goods, because obviously that's not going to result in actual competitive behaviour. But during the worst of COVID-19 the UK government said "Do whatever it takes, we won't enforce those rules" and so my Sainsbury's had own brand goods from other major supermarket chains on shelves for a week or so, because it was just easier to ship all the frozen potato products (for example) for my district in one truck, and not worry about ensuring the brand on the product matches the sign on the store because it's all food and nobody wants to starve to death.

Yes and they do same day delivery now, pretty sweet.

The click and collect to a local Sainsburys was a great adaptation. No more driving in to town, parking, fighting though crowds only to find the item isn't in stock.

Now you just select the item you want and their "availability" time is based on how quickly they can shuffle stock around to your area. Its actually quite a nice experience.

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