Death of the Big Book: How Sears Ceded Catalog and the Internet to Amazon - Paperback

by George Washington Eaton III (Author)

In Death of the Big Book, the author offers his memoir and perspective on a thirty three career with the Sears catalog division that highlights the actions taken that closed its 1,400 page general catalog (Big Book) and virtually abandoned a $4 billion catalog business with 2,300 selling units spread throughout America and a distribution network envied by the industry. The author describes how a retail philosophy minimized Catalog's contribution to the corporate coffers and failed to recognize its valuable synergism with the company's retail stores. By dismantling its catalog business, Sears lost its dominance in catalog marketing and failed to recognize the internet market's enormous potential that would be captured by Amazon.

Author Biography

The author, George Washington Eaton III, graduated from of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, served as a U.S. Navy Supply Officer and controller, and joined Sears catalog division in 1960. Over a 33 year career, the author moved up in the ranks in catalog store management, group and territory catalog merchandise management, and held key national catalog management positions, and retired in 1993 with the catalog company's close. Eaton's breadth of catalog experience has given him a unique perspective on how the erosion of Catalog's influence led to Sears' failure to challenge Amazon in the internet marketplace.