The Press: Bulk

No unsolicited contributions are ever considered for the two periodicals with the greatest circulations on earth. From a humming limbo of secrecy and editorial anonymity, these two publications emerge almost simultaneously twice a year. Each copy weighs about 4 lb., costs its publisher about 75¢. Yet readers get them free. The current issues would fill a freight train some ten miles long, will net the U. S. Government about $1,300,000 in postage. Although they consist entirely of advertising, they provide abundant fireside entertainment for 14,000,000 people. From Chicago fanwise over the world last week began to spread the autumn and winter editions of the mail order catalogs of Sears, Roebuck and of Montgomery Ward.

Presumably the worst nightmare a Sears catalog man can have is that a Ward man has learned in advance how much Sears is charging for votive candles or alfalfa forks and has underbid Sears by a few cents. To guard against such peeking, at the Chicago printing plant ofR. R. Donnelley & Sons Co. (The Lakeside Press), which shares this enormous order with W. F. Hall Printing Co.. the production space allotted to Ward and that to Sears are as carefully separated and shielded from each other as girls’ and boys’ dormitories in a State University. If a representative from either mail house appears to see how things are going, he is admitted only with a plant chaperone to make sure he does not stray out of bounds. Scrap paper and trial pages from the presses are impounded lest prices, layouts or even ideas fall into the wrong hands. Now that the forms are closed and the catalogs are on the presses this precious rubbish can be sold as waste paper. Because of all this mummery publicity men for the two houses have rough going. They must be extremely chary about the sort of figures they release, may be told to soft-pedal at anytime by their bosses.

One hundred and twenty presses are now drumming out 200,000 catalogs a day, will not complete their run until sometime in September. Donnelley’s has four-color presses in which special chemicals dry the ink quickly, machines which wrap and label 8000 books an hour. Five hundred girls do nothing but hand-work— inserting color pages and swatches of cloth. One girl can stick on 1000 swatches an hour—about one every three seconds. In binding the books no stitching is used; the pages are stuck together as they whiz through a glueing machine.

The vast and complicated procedures of making up the two catalogs are much alike. At Montgomery Ward the business is carried through 132 steps on a huge chart. First the buyers try to wangle as much space as they can, each arguing the merits of his own department. Buyers’ criticisms of the previous issue are closely heeded. Head of Ward’s catalog enterprise is Vice President Frank Folsom, who disclaims the title of editor. Under his eye work 52 copywriters, some 600 artists and layout men. When, after 11 revisions, the page proofs are completely corrected and back to the printer, the editorial job is done.”Editor” of the Sears book is bespectacled Donald M. Nelson,who likes to keep out of the spotlight as much as does Ward’s Folsom.

Wrong prices are so rare as to be almost negligible as a source of loss on the books. Montgomery Ward recalls with horror, however, that once tilt sheeting was erroneously priced at 92¢ instead of $9.25. A few alert customersjumped in with large orders, which were filled at the list price.

The catalogs do not go direct from printing plant to consumer, but to branch offices, of which Sears has ten, Ward eleven. There they are mailed out to old customers, new ones who ask for them.

Different editions with different prices are printed for each branch. Shoes, for example, cost more in Chicago than in Boston, overalls more in San Francisco than in Atlanta.

In both the new catalogs the tendency to use photographs and halftones instead of line drawings is more visible than ever, especially for women’s apparel. The Sears book has 1,062 pages, up 134 from lastissue. Ward’s catalog—794 large-size pages —is its biggest since 1921. Together they will consume 25,000 tons of paper, 500 tons of ink. Other comparisons:

Sears: 102 color plates.

Ward: 94 color plates.

Sears: 352 rotogravure pages.

Ward: 376 rotogravure pages.

So that customers may submit its cloth samples to close scrutiny, Sears supplies a magnifying glass with every catalog.