Buying something without going into a store in old-time Phoenix - mail order


Even though I've been buying things online that are delivered to my home for many years now, I never really liked doing that before the invention of the internet. And if you think that shopping from home is something new, it's not, and in the early days of Phoenix mail order items would have been very important.

Of course, as Phoenix grew and more and more stores carried just about everything you could want, there was less of a need to place and order and wait for it to arrive in the mail.

The order form at the top of this post, from the Phoenix newspaper of 1917, would have been typical. Sears, Roebuck and Company and also Montgomery Ward were very big on mail order. Most homes in the United States would have had both of their catalogs. In fact, my mom in Minneapolis in the 1960s would order things through the Sears catalog and go to the Sears building just to pick them up. It was less of a hassle, I guess, than dragging kids through a store (although my brothers and I were angels, as I recall). We would sit in a waiting room and wait for a number to be called.

Speaking for myself, I always hated waiting for something to arrive in the mail. As a kid whenever I did order anything (and my mom would write the check), it was torture waiting for it to arrive, which would take anywhere from two weeks to forever. Nowadays most of what I order arrives in just a few days, and I get an email that allows me to track the order if I want to. Usually now I just forget about it. It's so reliable and routine that you can do that.

It must have been thrilling to receive something from a mail order company in old-time Phoenix. Right now I'm thinking about how excited the little town in "the Music Man" was when the Wells Fargo Wagon came into town, bringing in something for someone special.

Oh the Wells Fargo Wagon is a-coming down the street,
Oh please let it be for me!
Oh the Wells Fargo Wagon is a-coming down the street,
I wish I wish I knew what it could be!

 I got a box of maple sugar on my birthday,
In March I got a grey mackinaw,
And once I got some grapefruit from Tampa,
Montgom'ry Ward sent me a bathtub and a cross cut saw!

 O-ho the Wells Fargo Wagon is a-comin' now,
I don't know how I can ever wait to see!
It could be somethin' for someone who is no relation,
But it could be something special,
Just for me!
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