For 47 years, the Argos catalogue had a well-deserved place in Manchester homes, providing a convenient shopping service and entertaining children for hours.
Up until it was printed for the final time in 2020, browsing the shopping bible was a must when it came to compiling our birthday and Christmas wish lists. Throughout its five decades, the Argos catalogue had an important place on many Manchester coffee tables and bookshelves.
The hefty book, which was first printed in 1973, contained all of the latest must-have toys and gadgets. We would peruse its hundred-odd pages for hours, getting more and more excited as our eyes beheld each toy that we just had to have.
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In 1989, this included Barbie dolls, My Little Pony, and action figures from Transformers and Ghostbusters. A decade later, the catalogue’s offerings in 1999 included Polly Pocket, Action Man dolls, Toy Story, and Power Rangers figures.
As well as products for the kids, the Argos catalogue contained household items, electronics, jewellery, and everything else you could possibly need. Nowadays, we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to shopping from the comfort of our homes, with a plethora of websites - including Argos - selling a variety of items that can be ours within the touch of a few buttons.
Scrolling for hours online, however, isn’t as exciting or enjoyable as browsing the catalogue with a pen or pencil in hand. Looking back, it feels like we didn’t appreciate it enough.
Christmas time certainly isn’t the same without it, as children are no longer able to dedicate an afternoon to sift through the pages of Argos’ stock. The MEN has compiled the below list of 11 things most kids did while looking through the catalogue.
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Sit cross legged on the floor to study the catalogue for hours. We often suffered horrendous pins and needles as a consequence, but it was worth the pain.
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Drawing huge circles around the toys we wanted for Christmas and birthdays. Many of us would use a bright coloured pen or highlighter to make sure our circle wouldn’t be missed.
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Writing a list of all the codes to include on our wish list, as circling them just wasn’t thorough enough.
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When writing became too much effort, we’d cut out the pictures of our must-have items and stick them to our wish list.
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Folding the corners of pages as hints to our parents (and Santa), so that the next time they browsed the catalogue, they’d know what we wanted without having to ask.
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Accidentally ripping the extremely thin pages while flicking through them too quickly.
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Coming across the big girl/boy bikes and confidently announcing we were ready for one, despite being a few years off the recommended age.
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Struggling to pick just one doll or action figure, so insisting we needed a few so that they wouldn’t be lonely.
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Venturing away from the toys to the jewellery section to look at the engagement rings and pick the one we wanted when we were grown up.
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Browsing the home section and designing our dream bedroom, knowing that there’s no way our parents would let us have such bold and mismatched colour/style choices.
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Spend hours insisting to our parents that we will use the item we want ALL the time, so it will be worth the money. In reality, it was around a week before it went in the cupboard not to be touched for six months.
What do you miss most about the Argos catalogue? Share your memories in the comments section below.
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