text: Photo 
   
   The parent of the in-flight shopping magazine SkyMall said on Friday that it had filed for bankruptcy protection, citing in-flight Wi-Fi access as one of the factors luring shoppers away from its quirky catalog of travel products, pet toys and garden gnomes. 
   
   The company, Xhibit, said that it would sell off its online retail business and other assets. 
   
   “Historically, the SkyMall catalog was the sole in-flight option for potential purchasers of products to review while traveling. With the increased use of electronic devices on planes, fewer people browsed the SkyMall in-flight catalog,” Xhibit said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 
   
   Founded in 1990 to cater to airplane passengers with time and money to spare, SkyMall catalog’s often featured wacky product offerings and provided comic relief for travelers riffling through the seat pockets for light reading. 
   
   Its 2014 holiday catalog offered a Santa Claus Sculptural Glass-Topped Holiday Table for $129; and $1,000 Serenity Pods for cats and dogs, fitted with a wireless sound system and LED lights, which promised to gently rock them to sleep. More sensible offerings included travel-related items like passport wallets or wrinkle-free resort wear. 
   
   Photo 
   
   SkyMall’s eclectic lineup contributed to its downfall, its bankruptcy filing suggested. 
   
   “Because SkyMall historically did not narrowly tailor its product offerings, SkyMall faced well-established competitors in every market vertical, as well as competition from significant, broad-based e-commerce providers, such as Amazon.com and eBay.com,” the filing said. 
   
   Many of SkyMall’s competitors have greater, or vastly greater, resources, longer histories, more customers and higher brand recognition.” 
   
   Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
   
   The costs of carrying printed SkyMall catalogs also made them increasingly unattractive to airlines, the company said. Delta’s contract with SkyMall ended Nov. 30, and Southwest Airlines told Xhibit in December that it would not carry the catalog beyond April of this year, according to the filing. By the end of December, SkyMall faced “a severe liquidity crisis,” it said. 
   
   Sales from Southwest travelers alone made up about 7 percent of its overall merchandise sales and the negative impact on its bottom line could be even greater, the company had warned in an earlier statement. 
   
   Still, Paul Swinand, an analyst for Morningstar who covers the retail industry, called the bankruptcy filing surprising. 
   
   Photo 
   
   “That would seem like it’s a monopoly business,” he said. “Nobody competes with them. Where the SkyMall fell flat was with mobile. If people are on their phones, they’re not browsing the SkyMall catalog.” 
   
   Scott Wiley, Xhibit’s acting chief executive, said in a statement that he was “extremely disappointed in this result.” Mr. Wiley replaced the former Xhibit chief, Kevin Weiss, who resigned from the company last year as its woes mounted. 
   
   He said Xhibit was “hopeful that SkyMall and the iconic ‘SkyMall’ brand find a home to continue to operate as SkyMall has for the last 25 years.” 
   
   In its filing, Xhibit listed assets of $1 million to $10 million, and liabilities of $10 million to $50 million. Delta, American and US Airways were listed among its creditors. 
   
   The SkyMall business generated revenue of about $33.7 million in 2013 and $15.8 million for the nine months ended Sept. 28, according to the filing. Debtors estimate that total creditor claims are approximately $12 million, according to the filing ||||| SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)—There’s still time to get that special tortilla baby blanket from SkyMall, of course, but the in-flight catalog’s bankruptcy filing is just the latest black eye for an industry that has lost ground for more than a decade. 
   
   The mail-order industry generated $71.4 billion in revenues last year, down 6% from five years ago, according to estimates from analysts at IBISWorld. The analysts predicted a drop to $61 billion in revenues, or 14%, by 2019. 
   
   The main reason? A dwindling customer base and the relentless competition from the likes of Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -1.29% and other online retailers. 
   
   After all, that same resin yeti sculpture some may consider adorning their lawn with can be found at Amazon. In many cases, e-commerce companies offer more convenience, quicker transactions and more thorough product information than traditional mail order catalogs, IBISWorld analysts said. 
   
   Not to mention price: the yeti sculpture is actually cheaper at SkyMall’s site than on Amazon, but broadly speaking, e-retailers’ prices are “highly competitive,” the analysts said. 
   
   Mailing costs have also increased, coinciding with a growing consumer backlash against unsolicited mail and concerns about paper waste. 
   
   SkyMall and parent company Xhibit Corp. US:XBTC executives couldn't be reached for comment. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, and in filings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix, acting Chief Executive Scott Wiley cited e-commerce as one of the reasons for his company’s financial dire straits. 
   
   In addition, air travelers increasingly snubbed SkyMall’s catalogs in favor of their electronic devices, he said. SkyMall is looking for a buyer and will attempt to a scaled-down business operating during the process. 
   
   Don’t dismiss mail-order businesses just yet. The industry has thrived for decades, and some companies have embraced online retail and mobile platforms to expand their customer bases, IBISWorld said. 
   
   Survival will hinge on their ability to identify a target audience through demographic data and advertise their niche products to specific customers through catalogs and digital methods, the analysts said. ||||| SkyMall, whose in-flight shopping catalogs have long been a staple of airline travel, has filed for bankruptcy protection, blaming changing consumer habits and the loss of contracts from two major carriers, Delta and Southwest. 
   
   Xhibit Corp XBTC.PK, SkyMall's parent, on Friday said it hoped to sell its main assets, including the SkyMall online retail business, in April through a court-supervised auction, and then complete an "orderly wind-down" of its affairs. 
   
   It also said it suspended its retail catalog operations on Jan. 16, laying off 47 of its 150 employees. 
   
   Xhibit and SkyMall filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors on Thursday night in the U.S. bankruptcy court in Phoenix, their hometown. The debtors, including several affiliates, face $12 million of creditor claims. 
   
   Founded in 1989, SkyMall said it sold more than 30,000 products it calls "cool stuff," including novelty items ranging from personalized socks to dog beds to a $2,499 football helmet signed by Notre Dame players and coaches. It says it reaches 650 million air travelers a year. 
   
   But in a court filing, Chief Financial Officer Scott Wiley said financial strains grew as travelers spent less time in the air browsing catalogs and more time on their smartphones and laptops, and amid increased competition from online rivals such as Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and eBay Inc (EBAY.O). 
   
   Wiley also said Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N) ended its contract with SkyMall on Nov. 30, and Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) planned to stop carrying the catalog on April 1. 
   
   SkyMall revenue totaled $33.7 million in 2013, but only about $15.8 million in the first nine months of 2014, a court filing shows. 
   
   The case is In re: SkyMall LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Arizona, No, 15-bk-00679. 
   
   (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York) ||||| My parents didn’t love each other anymore, so at 10-, 7-, and 2-years-old, we flew unaccompanied between Idaho and LA for visits. We may not have had chaperones or the security of an intact nuclear family, but we had one essential comfort: The SkyMall catalog. 
   
   As the eldest sibling, it fell to me to read the descriptions to my brothers. I ad-libbed. 
   
   “THIS is the garden gnome we’d need if we lived by ourselves in the forest. We’d set this up outside our rotted out tree trunk to warn away bad guys.” 
   
   “What bad guys?” little 7-year-old Ben would ask. 
   
   “Uh, that bad guy,” I’d say, pointing to some smelly adult on the plane. 
   
   We devoured every page–even the ones with the posters of slogans we didn’t understand. Why is that cat hanging in there, we wondered? 
   
   My favorite was the convertible furniture section. I was big into playing house at the time, pretending I had no parents and was in charge of my own destiny. The centerpiece of said destiny was surely going to be that magic-looking bureau that actually opened up into what the catalog called a liquor cabinet but looked to me more like where a witch stored her potions. I was no dummy; I knew what liquor was, and I knew people abused it and went to something called “Ah” to deal with that, so I figured instead of liquor I’d hide way better things, like makeup and food. Or magic potions if I ever came across any. 
   
   When my dad would pick us up at LAX, we’d bring our copy of SkyMall, dog-eared, pored over. 
   
   “Dad, can we get the life-size tiger for your house?” 
   
   I can only imagine how much he wanted to laugh in our faces, but divorce does a tricky thing to parents: it makes them never want to say no to you. That year, he let us pick our Christmas gifts from SkyMall. All of them. Literally. I have no memory of what we actually chose. He flew us back to Idaho so we could spend the holiday together and I just remember the elation of picking up the phone in the back of the headrest on the Delta plane and calling a human being from the air. The line cracked, but from down deep below the thin air, a woman’s voice said, “Hi, thanks for calling SkyMall.” Outside the window, smog and clouds skidded past and I was talking on the telephone to a human being who was going to send us presents! 
   
   The possibilities in life were limitless. 
   
   That was the only time I ever bought anything out of the catalog, but Ben spent a good decade ordering Christmas presents from its pages. He did this for two reasons: first, he saw it as a sort of tradition, beginning on that trip in 1991; and second, he inevitably was flying to whichever parent we were spending the holidays with and hadn’t thought about a gift for anyone yet. 
   
   Before the Internet, before Amazon, SkyMall was the best option for slackers with no cash but a credit card furnished by family guilt. 
   
   “Mom, I bought you a bunion strap and a stepping stool for your dog!” Ben would say, never able to keep his gifts a secret until Christmas day. 
   
   “YOU bought it? How?” 
   
   “With your credit card.” 
   
   “Oh. That credit card is for emergencies, honey.” 
   
   “It was a Christmas emergency, Mom.” 
   
   There was no answering that. 
   
   SkyMall was our babysitter. Our distraction. When we got older we delighted in mocking the absurdity of it, how ridiculous and unnecessary was everything in its pages. In this way, we explained to each other that we were maturing, that we weren’t dumb little kids anymore. When I became a teenager–embarrassed by everything and everyone–I’d tease the boys for liking anything in the catalog. 
   
   “That is SO pointless,” I’d say. 
   
   “OK, we can stop looking at it,” Ben would say. 
   
   “No, no,” I’d protest. “Harry is having fun.” Harry, wide-eyed and three years old would narrow his eyes into a look that seemed to say, “I know I’m being used.” 
   
   SkyMall was a tradition. An absurd, capitalistic embodiment of everything that was shallow and wrong with our lives, and yet it also brought us comfort. No matter if the plane was delayed, or we were stuck alone on a layover, missing whichever parent we were leaving, missing the friends and the life we were leaving behind each time we went between homes, it was there to make us laugh. To let us roll our eyes. To surprise us with a new level of novelty and frivolity. 
   
   SkyMall, that stupid wonderful completely American wonder that, with its insistence that you take your own free copy, announced it was your right as a human in the ‘90s to never not be shopping. Never not be consuming. 
   
   Of course, I didn’t think about how genius it was for them to tap into such a captive audience, stuck with nothing to do but wait. I never felt manipulated back then. I was a kid. Now it’s not hard to see how the business model wasn’t sustainable into the aughts and beyond. 
   
   When I fly now I try to write. Or sleep. Or squirm. Or, who am I kidding, look at Twitter. I haven’t noticed a SkyMall on the last 10 planes I’ve flown but I’m sure it was there, slick and expectant in the seat back flap, amid the wrappers and detritus of former travelers. Waiting for someone to notice it. 
   
   I’m sorry I paid $7 for inflight Wi-Fi instead of reading you, little shopping catalog. Forgive me.
target: – It was just a matter of time: The company behind SkyMall, the inflight magazine that pitched air travelers stuff they didn't need, has filed for bankruptcy. It could go no longer compete now that people are allowed to fire up their smartphones and tablets on the plane, especially against the likes of Amazon. Xhibit Corp. has suspended the catalog but hopes it might survive in a bankruptcy deal. Business writers can't resist picking out their favorite items for sale: Wall Street Journal: "If a bankruptcy deal doesn’t happen, some flyers will be sad to see the seller of Bigfoot Garden Yeti statues (which retails for $2,250 for the life size model) and Litter Robots (a robotic self-cleaning cat litter box for $359.99) go the way of other now-defunct retailers." MarketWatch: "There’s still time to get that special tortilla baby blanket from SkyMall, of course, but ..." Reuters: "(N)ovelty items ranging from personalized socks to dog beds to a $2,499 football helmet signed by Notre Dame players and coaches." New York Times: Its story mentions "a Santa Claus Sculptural Glass-Topped Holiday Table for $129; and $1,000 Serenity Pods for cats and dogs, fitted with a wireless sound system and LED lights, which promised to gently rock them to sleep." USA Today: The company "that entices airline travelers with offers for iFetch ball launchers for dogs and mini clap-on alarm clocks, is ..." Wired: This is more of an ode, and apology, from SkyMall adorer Emily Dreyfuss. "I’m sorry I paid $7 for inflight Wi-Fi instead of reading you, little shopping catalog. Forgive me. "