People of a certain age remember flipping through the Sears Roebuck “mail order catalog.” A huge mother with not very good illustrations and descriptions of the products (no reviews). This memory floated back while browsing Amazon.

Kids called it the “wish book” because some of us got to flip through the toy section and pick things for Santa to bring us. That Santa had a relationship with Sears didn’t seem at all strange.

We could also find interesting stuff to covet in the back of magazines like Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. (“Allow four to six weeks for delivery”)

For immediate gratification, some cereal boxes included a “prize inside.” The better the prize, the worse the cereal.