THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408260055
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: AROUND THE HOUSE
SOURCE: BY MARY FLACHSENHAAR, SPECIAL TO HOME & GARDEN
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
AS THE COOKOUT season winds down, the catalog season revs up.
Glossy photos of ceramic Santas and holiday flags are cruel reminders to those of us who vowed last Dec. 24: ``Next year I'm going to start all this Christmas nonsense in August.''
Catalogs have become such a way of American life, they've even merited an expert's analysis.
The average household receives 163 catalogs a year, according to Richard Feinberg, Ph.D., director of the Purdue Retail Institute in West Lafayette, Ind. Most, he said, go straight into the garbage or recycling bin.
Feinberg's research, which focused on the buying habits of 458 people nationwide, showed that the more catalogs a person gets in the mail, the less likely that person is to make a purchase. In an article in the August issue of Redbook magazine, he blamed the syndrome on information overload.
``Your brain shuts down and you don't feel like making any decisions,'' he said.
Sounds like this Dec. 24 will be as frantic as the last one. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MILES KIMBALL ART DEPARTMENT
The Exposures catalog features a wooden rod for displaying pictures.
Details on G4.
by CNB