Three of the largest office supply companies in the United States
Because many people have home offices today, there is a greater need for a complete supply of things for a home office, whether it be furniture, paper supplies or computers and other electronic equipment such as faxes and printers. With so many people working from home now, they need easy access to stores that will provide the various supplies needed to offer a complete office space filled with all the details, even small things like ink refills or toner refills for their computer. The top three stores that specialize in this retail area are Office Max, Office Depot, and Staples. This article will explore these three stores more fully and provide additional information.
Office Max was formerly known as the Boise Cascade Corporation and was originally a lumbar company that had been formed in 1913. In 2003, the company acquired Office Max Inc., doubling the size of office products and becoming a retail store. in the U.S. They have two segments, the contract and the retail one today. The contractual part of the business is sold directly to corporate offices not only in the US but also in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The retail side has more than 1000 stores in the US and Mexico that sell paper and office supplies to customers who shop in stores. Retail also has three large distribution centers for all inventory and supplies to be sold through these two categories. This business continues to be more popular and its sales continue to increase despite a difficult economy.
The other office supply company that is often mistaken for the first one mentioned is Office Depot. This company started with its first retail store in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1986. Today this company sold more than 12 billion dollars worth of products in 2009. They have three segments to make this such a profitable company and they are the retail division, the business solutions division and international division. They make sales in a variety of ways, whether through their retail stores, through corporate contracts, over the Internet, as well as through catalogs and call centers. Regardless of how you might think of selling a product, Office Depot seems to do it and that is why they are so successful, even in a poor economy.
The latest competitor in this office supply industry is called Staples. It is currently the largest of the three office products companies with more than $ 24 billion in sales last year. They too started as a store in 1986 and claim to have invented the concept of the office superstore. They serve businesses of all sizes and are globally present in 27 countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. They sell office supplies, technology, furniture and also business services. They keep getting ahead of their competitors by creating new concepts every year.
Most Americans have at least one or, if not, all three stores in their area. Now with this information, you know a little more about them as corporations.
