I am showing my age with this Unorganized Territory. I am going to mention something that has gone the way of princess telephones, party lines and no white shoes after Labor Day— the January “White Sale.”
My mother and most of her friends are likely nodding their heads and reassuring me that January is the month to buy new linens. The “White Sale” is when sheets and comforters and towels and bathmats used to be discounted. For some reason, January was the month to replace worn out sheets or to purchase a nice new matching set for a guest room.
However, it seems like the “White Sale” is a thing of the past. With Wal- Mart and K-mart and special overstock stores, anytime is a good time to find linens on sale.
But, lately—in February—my mailbox has been filled with a lot of catalogs proffering linens. Scads of pages of beautiful bedspreads with coordinated curtains and throw rugs. Cozy-looking reversible quilts with matching pillow shams. Bathroom sets with perfectly coordinated towels and toilet seat covers.
They are all very tempting. It’s almost like the January White Sale is back. Except that it is now February.
I thought perhaps my memory was failing me and I was remembering incorrectly that the White Sale was in January. So, to find an answer (and to show that I am not ancient), I turned to the modern marvel, the Internet. And I found out that, yes, I was right in thinking that the White Sale was in January.
However, an Internet search for White Sale now brings up mainly a lot of miscellaneous white things that are on sale. It offers a somewhat insulting definition of the origin of the White Sale, referring to it as the “slightly dated term for department store bedding sales.”
There is a sad little Wikipedia entry attributing the creation of the White Sale to John Wanamaker in 1878. Apparently Wanamaker wanted to boost linen sales and he introduced the White Sale.
The reason I found the explanation sad is because it includes a note that I’ve never seen before. Wikipedia declares that the entry for White Sale is “an orphan” because it has no other related articles linked to it. So outdated has the term White Sale become that it doesn’t even get respect from Wikipedia.
However, the inventor of the White Sale, John Wanamaker, does have a number of links to articles and books. Wanamaker was a very interesting fellow. We tend to think that clever marketing schemes are a modern phenomenon, but Wanamaker was a master at promoting his Philadelphia store, which in 1877 was considered to be America’s largest retail store.
He is credited with being the first to offer merchandise returns for refunds. He organized his huge store into “departments” creating America’s first department store. He was a man of principle—he changed the face of retail sales when he began offering “one price, clearly marked”—selling merchandise for the same price to all who entered his store, instead of allowing salespeople to try to get as high a price as they could.
One of his business principles was one that we could use more of in our supposedly civilized modern times—“accuracy in word and print.” Wanamaker insisted on truth in advertising.
He realized the value of advertising. It is said that when he opened his first store in 1861, the first day’s business made a profit of $38, which he invested in one advertisement in the next day’s newspaper.
But he also came up with some delightfully creative marketing ideas. “Guerilla marketing” is a modern term for “out of the box” promotions such as flash mob performances or graffiti ads. But in the 1870s, John Wanamaker had already perfected the concept. In one campaign, he pasted the city with posters with nothing more than “W&B” on them. Soon all of Philadelphia was wondering what the signs meant. Then, a second poster appeared, announcing that Wanamaker & Brown had begun selling clothing.
He also devised campaigns with giant balloons, billboards and sandwich board signs—and of course, the White Sale. I think it would be fitting to honor the memory of this marketing pioneer by shopping, don’t you think?
Now where did I put that catalog?
Half the money I spend on advertising
is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know
which half.
John Wanamaker
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