Help me get hold of catalogues from overseas

October 21, 2010 5:17 AM

Short of going there myself, what would be the best way to collect, in the UK, a sample of customer magazines and catalogues from other countries?

I would like to research a wide sample of customer/consumer magazines and catalogues, and anything inbetween, from countries outside the UK. I'd like to focus on ones that are in some way innovative or unusual, but that is a secondary concern. Larger European countries, the United States, the BRIC countries and RSA are my priorities.
Postage or similar costs are not an issue.

posted by tawny to Shopping (6 answers total)

Your local newsagent might be able to order magazines in for you. If you have a list of mags that you want, taking it in to your local WHSmith or similar might get you somewhere.
posted by Solomon at 5:21 AM on October 21, 2010

Use a product retrieval service like this or this. Not especially cheap though.
posted by MuffinMan at 5:31 AM on October 21, 2010

Find a newsagent that will order you copies through Comag.

Alternatively, ebay.
posted by fire&wings at 5:32 AM on October 21, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for these - all informative. I perhaps should have been more specific, as I am looking for things published by retail firms, not so much newsstand magazines. In the UK, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer produce substantial glossy magazines advertising their products.
posted by tawny at 5:54 AM on October 21, 2010

The printed leaflets available in Game stores in South Africa are identical to those found here. They also seem to have them available for other African countries.

Ditto for the catalogues found on the Makro site (there are several in different categories).

(assuming RSA is Republic of South Africa)
posted by Gomez_in_the_South at 6:07 AM on October 21, 2010

I bet if you started a blog or other website about it (and maybe linked from MeFi projects) you could get volunteers to send you some. I would.
posted by lollusc at 6:33 PM on October 21, 2010