4 ms·

So instead of buying ad space we can now buy catalog space and reinvent the wheel.

• layer8 9mo ago
  The principle would be that companies aren’t allow to buy placement. It would be like a phonebook.
  • Aerroon 9mo ago
    Yes, instead they register 1 million businesses that will all be listed in the phonebook.
  • al_borland 9mo ago
    That would require regulation, as a catalog maker isn’t going to turn down what is effectively free money. This also doesn’t translate well to a physical store with more constraints on space. I recently got a catalog where everything was on pretty even footing. There was the occasional photo with someone wearing stuff, but it was a smattering of random brands, big and small. Nothing in it looked paid for. It was a catalog of stuff made in the US. The meat of the catalog was text that listed 1 item in a category per brand, when the brand may have had hundreds. A brand with literally one product was indistinguishable from a major brand. I actually found this quite frustrating as a potential buyer. If I was interested in a category I had to manually go to every single website to see what they actually had and if it was something I was interested in. There was no way to cut through the noise, other than my own past experience with companies that had some brand recognition (from advertising elsewhere).
  • mulmen 9mo ago
    How do you sort the directory? Alphabetical can be gamed with names like A1 Locksmith. Chronological favors incumbents or spammers depending on direction.
  • yibg 9mo ago
    Which company is on page 1?