BY ENQUIRER NEWS SERVICES
The Welcome Wagon won't be going out on the road anymore.
Ending a 70-year tradition, Welcome Wagon will stop sending representatives to knock on doors and greet newcomers in cities across the country with baskets of coupons, maps and other gifts.
Instead, new arrivals, new parents and newly engaged women will get a bound directory of coupons mailed to them.
Welcome Wagon's parent, Cendant Corp., blames the rise of two-career households for its dismissal of most of its 2,200 representatives.
"The world is changing. People are not home, moms are working," Cendant spokesman Elliot Bloom said Monday. "This is not an effective way to reach people."
Welcome Wagon got its start in 1928; and at its peak in the 1960s, representatives made 1.5 million home visits. But that has fallen to about a half-million visits this year.
Former Welcome Wagon representative Christa Elder of Madison, Ind., was saddened.
"It was a wonderful organization. I still have my basket," she said, talking about the roomy wicker baskets that would overflow with gifts and samples from merchants looking to both welcome and solicit new customers.
"Welcome Wagon was nice. It was like having your neighbor bring you over a plate of cookies," she said.
The only Welcome Wagon office listed in Greater Cincinnati is in the West Chester area of Butler County, but it closed before Monday's announcement.
