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BUSINESS Monday 6 January 2020
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Catalog retailers see reason for optimism after declines

By DAVID SHARP mailings, according to the
Associated Press U.S. Postal Service inspec-
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) tor general.
— Catalogs, those glossy Sarah Johnson says she
paper-and-ink offerings of loves flipping through cat-
outdoor apparel, kitchen- alogs at her convenience
ware and fruit baskets, are — but gets her hackles up
not yet headed for the re- when retailers fill her email
cycling bin of history. inbox.
Until recently, the future "Promotion emails drive
appeared grim for the me crazy," said Johnson,
mailbox-stuffers. A one- 29, of Vernal, Utah. "When
two punch of postal rate there's a catalog lying on
increases and the Great the table, it feels like it's my
Recession had sharply cut choice to pick it up and flip
their numbers. Common through it. When it arrives in
wisdom had everything re- my inbox it feels like it's im-
tail-related moving online. posing on me," she said.
But a catalog-industry re- Angela Hamann, another
bound appears in the millennial, says she prefers
works, fueled in part by catalogs because it's eas-
what might seem an un- This Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2004 file photo shows a selection of holiday season catalogs in Portland, ier than scrolling through
likely group: younger shop- Maine. webpages to evaluate a
pers who find it's sometimes Associated Press retailer's offering.
easier, more satisfying and "It's a great way to assess
even nostalgic, flipping retailers like Amazon and er, after a major U.S. Postal tion. what a company has to of-
pages rather than clicking Bonobos are getting into Service rate increase and Millennials who are nostal- fer without making a bunch
links. the act. the start of the recession in gic for vinyl records and all of clicks," said Hamann, 37,
Industry experts say that all "They're tapping out on late 2007. Catalog numbers things vintage are thumb- of New Gloucester, Maine.
those catalogs crammed what they're able to do dropped from about 19 bil- ing through catalogs and During the downturn, cata-
into mailboxes this holiday digitally," said Tim Curtis, lion in 2006 to an estimated dog-earing the pages. log retailers reduced the size
season are a sign that mail- president of CohereOne, a 11.5 billion in 2018, accord- It's a new demographic of the catalogs, slashed the
ings have stabilized — and direct marketing agency in ing to the American Cata- roughly from 22 to 38 that's number of pages and be-
may be growing — after a California. "They've got to log Mailers Association. helping to breathe some came selective about their
decline of about 40% since find some new way to drive The industry still faces chal- new life into the sector, in- mailings, said Jim Gibbs
the Great Recession. traffic to their websites." lenges, but there's reason dustry officials say. from The Dingley Press, in
New companies are mail- Catalog retailers slashed for some optimism, said In fact, millennials are more Lisbon, Maine, which prints
ing catalogs. And even mailings, and some aban- Hamilton Davison, presi- likely than baby boomers and mails about 330 million
died-in-the-wool online doned catalogs altogeth- dent of the mailers associa- to visit a store based on catalogs a year.q

German jobless rate ticks up to 4.9% in December

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's said Friday that the un- month and 18,000 more pated recession in the third spark the modest growth.
unemployment rate ticked adjusted jobless rate, the than a year earlier. quarter. It grew 0.1% in the Germany's central bank
up to 4.9% in December headline figure in Germa- The seasonally adjusted July-September period has said that output likely
as the labor market in Eu- ny, was up from 4.8% in No- rate remained at 5%, where compared with the previ- remained flat in the fourth
rope's biggest economy vember. it has stood for months. ous quarter, when it con- quarter.q
showed some signs of eco- In all, 2.227 million people The economy narrowly tracted by 0.2%. Strong
nomic weakness, though it were registered as unem- avoided a widely antici- domestic spending helped
remained generally robust. ployed. That was 47,000
The Federal Labor Agency more than the previous

The sun rises over the buildings of the banking district in Frank-
furt, Germany, on a misty Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020.
Associated Press