Montgomery+Ward+&+Co.

  

Montgomery Ward & Company




 * “Satisfaction Guaranteed or your money back!” **



· Created by Aaron Montgomery Ward – he wanted to provide better prices than rural retailers by selling products directly to farmers by the way of mail order and delivery by rail · Original plan: to sell general merchandise by catalog ONLY · Ambitious goal: to offer every non-perishable product there was a general demand for · At one time the largest mail order firm in the US · Sears = main competitor · The idea of catalog sales helped the country grow and prosper

**“You can’t go wrong when you deal with Montgomery Ward!” **



· They sold a variety of goods: jewelry to harnesses to shirt collars to windmills · Most sold item = sewing machine · Treated customers like family – they would seek their ideas on types of products they wanted in the catalog · First catalog mailed in the spring of 1872: 32 pages · Late 1873 Ward’s brother-in-law George Thorne put $500 in firm, and became an equal partner in the company · Fall catalog of 1874: 100 pages; sales topped $100,000 · 1883: catalog 240 pages; 10,000 items · 1884: Ward bought “Farmer’s Voice” newspaper – used for advertising for his company · By 1888 sales reached $1.8 million · When the depression hit in 1891, they lowered their prices, but they didn’t make them low enough for the poorest people · 1906: mailed out 3 million free catalogs; in the past they charged 15¢



Sources! [|"Montgomery Ward & Co."] [|"The Department Store"] [|"Montgomery Ward & Co., Incorporated "] [|"Wards, America's Cheapest Cash House"] [|"Ward, Aaron Montgomery (1843-1913)"] [|"Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House"]