Roch and rolling out

Internet shopping reminds me of The Hockey Sweater, a marvellously charming short story by Roch Carrier. For those who do not know it, the cartoon adaptation is available online. For these current days of World Cup football frenzy, it is a tale of childhood – and maybe adult – sports allegiance.

The author reminisces of growing up in a small town in rural Quebec where, each winter, he and his friends would play ice hockey. The protagonist was no different to the other children. They all wore the sweater of the Montreal Canadiens, their favourite team. Not only do the players imagine their sweaters are emblazoned with the number of their favourite player, number 9, Maurice “Rocket” Richard, the author also reveals that they all tied their skates and slicked back their hair like their hockey hero. And they all imagined that on the ice they played like Richard too.

By the time puberty hits, the author grows out of his treasured sweater. His mother orders a replacement from the Eaton’s mail order catalogue. When the big day comes and the parcel arrives, it includes a letter from the Eaton Company that they have sold out of Canadiens sweaters and have substituted a Toronto Maple Leaf jersey.

The apoplectic author is outraged. He cannot wear the sweater of Montreal’s arch-rival. Yet, he is forced to wear the Toronto jersey, much to his shame. Taunted taunted by his friends, the playground erupts into fights which the local priest breaks up. The author is sent to church to repent. But instead, the boy prays for a surprising Act of God that will make things better.

During my childhood in Canada, we received the mail order catalogues from department stores like Eaton’s or Simpson’s. However, living in a metropolis like Toronto meant that it was easier and cheaper to go to the local store than wait for purchases to come in the mail. There was catalogue shopping at Consumer Distributing – the Canadian equivalent of Britain’s Argos – where the fulfilment of orders was almost instantaneous, if the desired item was in stock.

The department stores I grew up with – along with Sears and Woolworths and others – have vanished. So too has Consumers Distributing. Here in Britain, there are profit warnings about department stores that still trade, like House of Fraser, Debenhams and even the venerable Marks & Spencer. One wonders how long they can stay in the marketplace. Argos survives as a subsidiary of supermarket giant Sainsbury’s with whom it often shares floor space.

Still, the legacy of catalogue stores and department stores lives on and online. Inventory is presented on screen in a manner similar to the catalogues of yesteryear. Unlike The Hockey Sweater, etailers may or may not make substitutions. Yet, we need to recognise that each email order is akin to a catalogue mail order.

In terms of progress, after many years we are back to catalogue shopping where the only difference is process. Technology has made everywhere a rural town where online sales become necessary, or at least an exceptionally viable option. Our orders are sent in cold, electronic type rather than in the warmth of handwritten script.

Marshall McLuhan famously wrote that “the medium is the message”. In an age where banks and supermarket checkouts are becoming more and more automated and there are campaigns to reduce loneliness, Amazon is rolling out its own shops. I wonder if this is an effort to bring a little bit of humanity back into the shopping experience.

As Peter Gabriel sang, are we just “wanting contact”?