The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1973–1999
Argos sold from a catalogue and stored everything in the back room
Argos swapped the supermarket aisle for a laminated book: customers chose from a catalogue and staff fetched items from a backroom warehouse.
Argos
the move
In July 1973 Argos opened its first high-street store in Canterbury with a format imported from US catalogue showrooms. Founder Richard Tompkins, who had built Green Shield Stamps, made the catalogue the heart of the shop: customers marked a number and staff fetched the item.
The format kept store space tiny while offering thousands of products, because the range existed in the catalogue and the goods sat in a compact backroom warehouse. Academics later called the catalogue an 'advanced selling system in its own right'.
The chain grew to 300 stores within three years and became Europe's most successful catalogue showroom retailer, with sales past £2 billion. The model survived for 47 years until Argos scrapped the printed catalogue in 2020.
why it works
- A catalogue showed thousands of lines without paying for shelf space.
- One backroom served many customers, cutting theft and staffing.
- Customers did the searching, so fewer staff were needed per sale.
- The format worked in small, cheap high-street units.
what transfers
You can sell a huge range from a tiny shop if the display is a book and the inventory lives in one efficient backroom — the store becomes a pickup point.
what came after
Argos became a British retail staple, merged into Home Retail Group and was bought by Sainsbury's in 2016. Its stores were gradually converted to digital kiosks, and the printed catalogue ended in 2020.
references
- Cataloguing change: Argos catalogues in 1973 and 1998
- Pages from the very first Argos catalogue launched 50 years ago
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