After nearly half a century, Argos has announced it will no longer produce physical copies of its catalogue. Is it something you’ll miss, or something you can do without?
It’s the end of an era: Argos has announced that it will no longer produce the physical edition of its catalogues.
This means, apart from physical Christmas gift guides distributed in store, the only way to browse the catalogue will be via the internet.
Given so much of our shopping has gone online though (even before the pandemic), were you still using the physical catalogue?
The joy of browsing
There can be a certain joy in having a physical catalogue. It runs closer to the experience of browsing in store: you can see the scope of what’s available and discover objects you’ve never known existed.
Being around for so long generations have grown up using this as the go-to gift guide for birthdays, holidays, and more:
Will you miss it?
It is hard to ignore the convenience of an online catalogue though. A physical catalogue can’t tell you whether the product is on sale, or actually in stock at a store near you, or enable you to buy it right as you’ve seen it.
With 3.9m copies of the 1,748 page catalogue printed in its most recent run, there’s also an environmental benefit to not having to print and distribute this across the country.
What do you think? Will you miss having the physical book to browse through? Is the online catalogue a suitable replacement?
When it comes to browsing what a store has to offer, do you find a benefit to having a physical catalogue, or do you see them as unnecessary?
