A Brief History of Office Supply Stores
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...For many decades, office supplies have often been sold in local bookstores around the country and in other parts of the world. Today, there are a number of different stores such as Office Depot and Staples that specialize in providing business establishments with various office supplies and equipment. From paper products to office furniture and fixtures, these office supply shops have become the one-stop shop for many business entrepreneurs regardless of the size of the company.
How it all began
Most of the popular office supply stores had their beginnings during the late 1980s. Staples and Office Depot were the first to be established in 1986. Two years after, Office Max opened its first store. Today, these three office supply retail stores are the top three most popular chains with branches all over the United States and even in other parts of the world.
The primary reason for the establishment of a specialized office supply store came as a result of a need. The founders of Staples and Office Depot have begun to notice that, although bookstores do provide many of the office supplies that are needed by any business establishment, these are often sold in retail. As such, many business establishments, especially those who are just beginning to start their own small business or home office to settle with whatever number of supplies that are available. Another problem that they noticed is that budding business entrepreneurs would need to travel from one store to another in order to acquire everything that they would need for their business. For instance, if they would need some office furniture and fixture, they would need to go to a furniture store. For their computer, electronic equipment and printer supplies needs, they would need to head down to an appliance or computer store for this. Not only was this extremely tedious on the part of the business entrepreneur. Since they would need to purchase everything on retail prices, they tend to spend more.
The solution
In line with this, the founders of Staples, Home Depot and Office Max came up with a solution. That is, to provide business entrepreneurs a one-stop shop where everything that they would need for their business would be available. Apart from providing all the printer supplies such as printer ink cartridges, papers, equipment and furnishings that you may need, these office supply specialty stores sell items both in retail and in bulk. As such, entrepreneurs began flocking and patronizing these stores because of the savings that they could get from purchasing many of their supplies in bulk.
Evolution of Services
Today, office supply stores now also offer a number of different services that you will need for your business. For example, apart from providing office supplies, equipment and furnishings, Staples now has a business center in every establishment. Here, customers can avail of services such as fax transmittals, creation of business materials, binding, laminating and the like. They also provide a service center for computers, printers and laptops. Office Depot now also offers ink refilling services to its customers by refilling emptied cartridges, allowing them to save money.
Reaching out to their customers
Another plus for office supply stores is that they provide great discounts and offers not just to budding business entrepreneurs. These offers and discounts are meant to attract teachers, students and any one who needs to avail of any of their products and services. Such is the case with Office Depot with their STAR Teacher Program. Through this program, a teacher is given huge discounts on selected services and products such as copying services and supplies that he or she would need. Office Max’s loyalty program named MaxPerks for Business provides a $25 rebate to members for every $500 purchase apart from bonuses that they would receive from ink recycling.
Subscribe Now!
December 17th, 2008 at 6:47 am
Good information. It’s interesting how the first few companies to market in a particular segment seem to end up being the industry giants. While Staples is the largest player in the office supply industry, Office Depot runs a close second.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:23 am
[...] Brother HL 4070CDW Color Laser Printer with Built In Duplex Printing and Wireless InterfaceAcquiring a Schengen Visa | Reveries of simplyJacyA Brief History of Office Supply Stores | My Office Portal [...]