Online shopping isn’t all that new, if you include the rail line.
In this week’s Timmins history feature, museum director-curator Karen Bachmann tells us “shop local” campaigns aren’t new, either. They go back to 1913 in the Porcupine Mining Camp. The competition came from catalogue shopping.
“It was really easy to take that Sears or Eatons catalogue and flip through it and place your order directly with them,” she says, “and it would chugga-chugga-chugga up on the train, and you would have your goods.”
You could order anything, even the kitchen sink and the house around it.
“You could order your house from T. Eaton’s Company and they would send you the lumber and everything you needed to fabricate it yourself,” says Bachmann.
Our next Timmins history feature will be on Wednesday, December 28th. While you’re shopping the Boxing Day sales, we’ll tell you what was available locally in the first few years of the community.