SkyMall Catalog to Return to Planes Later this Year - East Idaho News
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SkyMall Catalog to Return to Planes Later this Year

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HT skymall sk 150527 16x9 992?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1432802951661SkyMall(NEW YORK) — SkyMall was the quirky catalog most commonly found on airplanes before the company declared bankruptcy in January. This week, its new owner since April is declaring “SkyMall is back.”

C&A Marketing, based in New Jersey, purchased SkyMall at auction for $1.9 million. While SkyMall folded its paper catalog, pointing to the proliferation of online devices on planes, its website lived on.

But this week, amid a series of declarations via Twitter that the brand is “back,” the company told ABC News the SkyMall catalog should be back in airplanes later this year.

An article in The Atlantic published Tuesday declared, “The Medium Is the Massage Chair: SkyMall Is Making a Comeback,” and that its death “was greatly exaggerated.”

Chaim Pikarski, executive vice president of C&A Marketing, told ABC News that when his company bought SkyMall, it planned to keep core staff at its offices in Phoenix, and re-evaluate the company’s strategy that may be most beloved to air travelers.

“We’re going to re-engage with the airlines to see if it makes sense,” Pikarski said.

This week, SkyMall said it is working to increase its inventory.

C&A Marketing started selling photography equipment online and for distribution, eventually morphing into a business that sold consumer electronics on Amazon and eBay. The company then moved into manufacturing and signed a license with Polaroid six years ago, developing the popular Polaroid Cube. Since the Cube launched over the holiday, it sold out of its close to 200,000 pieces. The company’s experience in retail extends to its chain of 16 Ritz camera stores and the website RitzPix.

Pikarski had said SkyMall’s selection and availability on its e-commerce website were “very busy” with a lot products, so he has been “working on weeding out products that are stale — gimmicky products — sprinkled with a little bit of products that are so off the chart that people laugh.”

“The Bigfoot — they sell a few pieces a year, but it’s something I would keep. We would try to stay true to the brand. We would keep some ridiculously cute products that are expected to be there even though people just don’t buy it,” he said. “It’s more a content and editorial play.”

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