The JCPenney printed catalog, the last "big" one to go
| December 30, 2009

The Sears "Big Book" catalog ceased publication back in 1993. Macy's followed in 2002. Now in 2009, JCPenney has announced it "will no longer publish its twice-yearly “big book” catalogs to adapt to changing consumer demand and sustainability goals. We can't remember the last time we thumbed through a large fashion catalog, but we are sad to see yet another printed publication die out. To our knowledge, JCPenney is the last of the big department stores to say good-bye to their giant "look books."



"To ensure we are keeping pace with consumers’ changing media habits and continued migration to online versus catalog shopping, we have increased our investments in new technologies, as well as successfully integrated the merchandising and marketing teams serving stores, jcp.com and catalog into one enterprise-wide team that is able to consistently and seamlessly serve our customers, no matter how they prefer to shop with us,” said Myron E. (Mike) Ullman, III, chairman and chief executive officer. “Part of this transformation is the refocusing of our catalog operation to smaller, more targeted publications, providing us with a strategic opportunity to continue reducing our overall paper consumption and transportation-related environmental impacts. We remain committed to constantly analyzing the impact of our overall environmental footprint and upholding the principles and discipline that have helped sustain and build JCPenney into a trusted brand for over 100 years."

—excerpt from company press release titled "JCPenney Transforms Catalog Strategy to Better Serve Customer Preferences"


*Note: Top image of "Cool Pajamas from the 70s" is from a 1976 catalog page (via vintagecatalog.net).The vintage JCPenney catalog covers shown in the above were found via zuhlcity.com.

Also of note: The Wishbook on flickr has an incredible collection of scanned in pages from various JCPenney Christmas catalogs from the 1960s-1970s. They are a great resource for vintage fashions, and may be the source of a little laughter. Here are links to 1966, 1970, 1974, & 1976.

Link:  more vintage J. C. Penney catalog covers

Topic: Fashion