[sverhagen]

I remember in the Netherlands we were up in arms for ages about still getting "useless" phone books and yellow pages, despite putting the "no ads - no (free) magazines" stickers (which were popular when I lived there). When I moved to the US, thankfully no more phone books, but I felt very similar to the Ikea magazine: a waste of paper, a burden to the environment, and I don't understand why you think it would've been cheap? We shop at Ikea all the time (barring pandemics), I'd see new stuff _there_.

[moooo99]

Having a bulky catalogue where your customers happily subscribe to is certainly a cheaper form of advertising than trying to invade their internet experience with products that might interest them. Its by no means a good way to acquire new customers, but its/was certainly an effective and comparatively cheap method to make your customers returning customers.

Nowadays, there are Smartphone apps, membership programs, extremely specific targeting options with online ads etc, all of those methods are certainly a lot cheaper than printing an delivering a bulky catalog.

That is, if you do not care about the environmental aspects.

[sverhagen]

Wait, hang on, aren't we talking about door-to-door delivery? That's what I assumed it was. But sure, I probably gave them my address...