|
Life in the USA Public Services I Shopping
|
Catalogue and Internet Shopping
Catalog and mail order shopping is a major component of the American consumer system. Thousands of companies put out catalogs specializing in anything you can imagine. If you subscribe to any major national magazine, your name and address will be sold to catalog houses and you'll receive plenty of catalogs of all types. You can also request to be put on catalog mailing lists. Catalog shopping is quiet and convenient. The best catalog companies allow you to return goods you don't like and bend over backwards to give you good customer service. With catalogs, however, you will often pay more. The products advertised in the catalogs look wonderful and are beautifully described, but in general you should only use catalogs if you simply don't have the time and energy to touch and feel the items in a real store, or if the item you want is hard to find.
Internet shopping (“e-tailing”) is becoming more prevalent daily in the United States. The
big catalog companies are all flocking to the Internet, while other companies such as
bookseller Amazon.com sell only on the Internet.
Next Section: Street Vendors and Flea Markets Public Services I: Chapter Home
Life in the USA Home
Page. The URL of this site is: http://www.lifeintheusa.com/services1/catalogues.htm
Building Yourself -
Stylegourmet -
Linguix |