Retrieving a random item from ArrayList

anyItem is a method and the System.out.println call is after your return statement so that won't compile anyway since it is unreachable.

Might want to re-write it like:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Random;

public class Catalogue
{
    private Random randomGenerator;
    private ArrayList<Item> catalogue;

    public Catalogue()
    { 
        catalogue = new ArrayList<Item>();
        randomGenerator = new Random();
    }

    public Item anyItem()
    {
        int index = randomGenerator.nextInt(catalogue.size());
        Item item = catalogue.get(index);
        System.out.println("Managers choice this week" + item + "our recommendation to you");
        return item;
    }
}

public static Item getRandomChestItem(List<Item> items) {
    return items.get(new Random().nextInt(items.size()));
}

your print comes after you return -- you can never reach that statement. Also, you never declared anyItem to be a variable. You might want

public Item anyItem()
    {
        int index = randomGenerator.nextInt(catalogue.size());
        Item randomItem = catalogue.get(index);
        System.out.println("Managers choice this week" + randomItem.toString() + "our recommendation to you");
        return randomItem;
    }

The toString part is just a quickie -- you might want to add a method 'getItemDescription' that returns a useful String for this purpose...

Here you go, using Generics:

private <T> T getRandomItem(List<T> list)
{
    Random random = new Random();
    int listSize = list.size();
    int randomIndex = random.nextInt(listSize);
    return list.get(randomIndex);
}