A Nostalgic Goodbye to Fingerhut: Remembering the 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Catalog

Not a real Fingerhut catalog but this captures the essence of a real one

Oh, the catalogs. I swear, growing up, our mailbox could have been less of a mail receptacle and more of a gateway to a museum of mailorder business. We had the heavy-hitters, Sears, Spiegel, Montgomery Ward, JC Penny but the one that always seemed to show up, year-round, was the Fingerhut catalog. It was just there, no matter if my mom was ordering or not.

Honestly, I didn't pay much mind to Fingerhut until I hit my teens. That's when my high school sweetheart, Richie, became a customer. I'll never forget the saga of the comforter. It was the early 90s in Pace, Florida and Richie was proud of the decorative comforter he’d ordered. His mom, Rose, on the other hand, made fun of him because he got it from Fingerhut. Looking back, Rose was kind of a cantankerous person who instilled enough passive aggressiveness in her parenting that one couldn’t tell if she was just being mean or just didn't get the magic. The comforter was cozy, not feminine, not basic and frankly, it was cute. It also served the vital purpose, Richie would share it with me while we sat next to each other on the couch and it hid the fact that we were holding hands while we watched TV with his sisters and Rose. I wasn’t in the closet but Richie was so keeping our attraction a secret was important, and yes, the pun is intended: that blanket kept us undercover. Hats off to Richie for being savvy enough to fill out that order form for a comforter that cost just $3.99 a month. I have no idea how many payments he had to make, but trust me, it was worth every single cent.

AI version of a Fingerhut-esque page

When he showed me the catalog, I was struck dumb. It wasn't just bedding; they had everything! And the most incredible part was their business model. It was all sold on the promise of credit with no credit check. You just sent in your first month’s payment, and 6 to 8 weeks later, your purchase arrived, usually just after your first bill.

Everyone talks about the music clubs—BMG, Columbia House—but no one really talks about Fingerhut's amazing business model of trust. I actually bought a few things myself and it felt like such a sophisticated adult thing to do! The only things I can vividly remember ordering was a glorious Lava Lamp and a Panasonic portable cassette player—or as we all generically called them back then, a Walkman. While not exactly as fun as getting instant gratification from buying at a store and taking home upon payment, they were delivered right to my door and I paid for them later. I only started to understand Rose’s "smack talk" years later when I realized I was probably paying double what I would have if I’d gone straight to a store and paid cash. The cassette player most likely wasn’t the newest model but it worked like a charm and it was mine.

As I got older, I realized the weird stigma attached to Fingerhut. It was the original "buy now, pay later"—kind of like reverse layaway. If you think about it historically, though, it was kinda cool; old general stores did similar things, offering accounts that people could pay off over time. But then stores like Big Lots expanded and it became clear that a lot of the items in the Fingerhut catalog were similar closeout items. Still, they had their definite place in the world of mail-order, just as Big Lots had its place in the retail world.

In my adult life, I always loved getting the Fingerhut catalog. It felt old-fashioned, comforting and a total throwback to a simpler time. I could easily jump online and buy the same things with a few clicks using a credit card or even go to the Fingerhut website and use a Fingerhut credit card, but nothing beat flipping through those glossy pages.

So, it's been a while since I received one and curiosity finally got the best of me. I went to the website and discovered the gut-punch news: they have recently gone out of business. How incredibly sad is that? To me, this company seemed like one that would last forever. It’s been around as long as I can remember.

Now that they’re gone, will you miss them? If you loved the old-school Fingerhut business, you can still check out a similar online store called Ginny’s, which is owned by Colony Brands—the company many of you might remember as Swiss Colony, who also own the current incarnation of Montgomery Ward. Were you a Fingerhut customer? What products did you buy? Share your favorite memory in the comments below.

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