You could buy something via mail or phone, but there were also shops: you would go there, fill out a form with tiny pencils (like an old school bank form), give it to the clerk, and they'd bring it to the cashier 'from the back'.
I remember holiday catalogues the same. Then the internet came, and I assumed it would make the whole process of choosing a holiday that bit more magical
Instead we got really efficient price comparison and sometimes very useful but often gamed customer reviews...
In Canada it was Consumers Distributing (also Eaton's, Sears):
* 1992 catalog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTXbe9Mw17Q
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers_Distributing
* https://www.tvo.org/article/what-happened-to-consumers-distr...
You could buy something via mail or phone, but there were also shops: you would go there, fill out a form with tiny pencils (like an old school bank form), give it to the clerk, and they'd bring it to the cashier 'from the back'.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalog_merchant