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30th July 2020
11:46am BST

There is not a British person born before 2000 who will not admit to idly browsing the Argos catalogue in moments of desperation, looking to kill 20 minutes while waiting for someone in town.
At Christmas, the Argos catalogue was the hymn sheet every child sang from, eagerly flicking through the toy section, circling the Tracy Island play set with such vigour that your parents would have to buy you it this year.
And when you just needed a big, sturdy, rectangular object to wedge something open or whack something with, the Argos catalogue was there for you, ready to serve.
More than anything, the axing of the Argos catalogue is another marker in the death of tactility, the loss of physical things. DVDs and CDs have been usurped by streaming. Magazines are on their knees - Q Magazine being the latest publication to announce its end.
Books are hanging on in there, but e-readers and tablets will continue to get cheaper. And while the Argos catalogue is not, with the best will in the world, a great work of literature, there was a joy in turning those slightly sticky, super-thin pages.
But the march of progress carries on, and the old must die to give way to the new. RIP Argos catalogue. Your pages are gone, but your memory lives on.Explore more on these topics:

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