A house from a catalogue
You could once buy a whole house from a catalogue, delivered by train
For three decades an American department store sold complete homes by mail order. The pieces arrived in boxcars. It is the best lesson in bundling I know.
Between 1908 and 1940 you could open the Sears, Roebuck catalogue in America, pick a house, and have it delivered.
I mean the whole house. The timber was cut to length and numbered. The nails, the paint, the windows, the roof shingles, the doorknobs, all in the kit. It came by rail in boxcars to the nearest station. You hired a local builder, or you and your neighbours followed the instruction book, and a few months later you lived in a Sears house.
There were dozens of designs, from a small cottage to a large family home. Many of them are still standing across the American Midwest. People who own one often do not know until they find the stamped numbers on the beams in the attic.
Why did this work? Sears already sold almost everything else. They already had the catalogue, the trust, the rail logistics and the credit terms. A house was just the biggest item on the list.
Three lessons, all still useful.
First, the hardest part of a house is the deciding. Which timber, how much, what size windows. Sears sold the decisions, with the materials as a bonus. Most customers do not want options. They want someone who has already made the choices well.
Second, the instruction book was the product. The kit was wood and nails that anyone could buy. The numbered plan was what made an ordinary family brave enough to build. Today we would call this the onboarding.
Third, distribution beats invention. Sears invented nothing here. Timber, rail, mail order and credit all existed. They put them in one box with one price and one address to write to.
I think about this whenever a client wants to launch something clever. Often the better move is simpler. Take things that already exist. Make the decisions for the customer. Write a very clear book. Put one price on the front.
The scheme ended during the Depression, when Sears had to stop lending money to buyers. The houses outlived the business model. Some are now a century old and listed as heritage.
Somewhere in Ohio today a family is eating dinner in a kitchen that arrived in a boxcar in 1923. That is what a good bundle looks like.
