50 Things That Made The Modern Economy With Tim Harford

Beware! Don't patronize Montgomery Ward and Co. They are deadbeats.

Because the Montgomery Ward brand still exists, I'd better make clear that's not my current advice.

It was a warning issued by the Chicago Tribune on November 8, 1873.

What had Aaron Montgomery Ward done to convince the Tribune's editorial staff that he was

running a swindling firm, praying on gulls and dupes in the countryside?

Well, Ward's flyers were offering suspiciously utopian prices on a suspiciously wide range of goods, over 200 items.

And get this, not only did Montgomery Ward and Co. not display their wares in a shop, they employed no agents.

In fact, they keep altogether retired from the public gaze, and are only to be reached through correspondence,

sent to a certain box in the post office.

Obviously, this must be some kind of scam. Mustn't it?

It seems not to have occurred to the Tribune that Ward might be able to offer his utopian prices,

precisely because he kept no expensive premises, and employed no middlemen.

But the threat of a lawsuit soon helped the editors to wrap their heads around Ward's new business model,

and a few weeks later, they printed a grovelling apology. Ward put it on his next flyer.

Still in his 20s, Aaron Montgomery Ward had made his way to Chicago after working as a clerk in a country store,

and got a job as a salesman for the future department store magnet Marshall Field.

It involved touring more of those rural general stores in farming communities,

and Ward realised how limited was the selection of goods they stocked, and how high were the prices.

The farmers had noticed that too. They were already exploring alternative ways to get goods more cheaply to their far-flung rural outposts.

Mail order existed, but it wasn't common. Just a few specialist firms with a limited line of wares.

The opening ward saw was ambitious, but simple.

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