It seems incredible, in the year of our lord 2026, that Argos still exists. And no, I don’t mean Odysseus’ dog; I mean the chain of catalogue-based stores that throng our high streets, although in considerably smaller quantities than they once did.
The comedian Bill Bailey aptly referred to their ‘laminated book of dreams’, the huge, printed catalogues that used to be displayed in their stores. Every shopper of a certain age will remember the tortuous process of having to find the item they wanted in the catalogue, filling in a form with a little blue pen, paying for their purchase, and then waiting to collect it after being given a number.
In retrospect, it seems utter madness that people would put themselves through such a complicated process in order to buy a digital watch, or children’s toy, or any of the other countless items on sale
In retrospect, it seems utter madness that people would put themselves through such a complicated process in order to buy a digital watch, or children’s toy, or any of the other countless items on sale. It was a convoluted means of buying something that made the equally notorious system at Foyle’s bookshop look almost sane by comparison. It was not as if there was any compensatory enjoyment from visiting the stores, either. The prices were pretty much the same as other high street shops, the items were often out of stock and, with the advent of Amazon and other online retailers, convenience and often lower prices far outweighed the need to trudge into town to pick up the little blue pen once more.
