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Online Office Supplies – A Brief History
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Online Office Supplies – A Brief History
From the General Store to Online Office Supplies
The Beginning – 150 Years Before Online Office Supplies
Like most industries in America, the office products industry started in the general stores
in towns and villages across the country. Local proprietors would sell stationery, pens, pencils, ink, and school supplies. In early rural America, letter writing was the only means of indirect communication. When small towns grew into larger cities office supplies were sold in the first department stores and specialty retail shops. Eventually, in the larger cities competition increased until it was necessary to provide business-to-business delivery. Deliveries from office supply stores to local businesses have would be made by horse and wagon. This was the start of the office products delivery business as we know it today. Even though modern day office products distributors offer Online Office Supplies, the fundamental competitive challenge continues to be delivery.
Last Century – The Automobile Era – 100 Years Before Online Office Supplies
After the turn of the last century the transportation of products and people changed dramatically. Businesses began to consolidate and grow larger. In order to continue to compete it became necessary for the office products retailer to become an office products distributor. With Motorized vehicles, deliveries could be made over long distances to companies with many office workers. Office workers would now start to become more mechanized. Business machines like typewriters and printing presses would be commonplace and boost the demand for more stationery products like paper, ink, and inked ribbons. Increased productivity in the workplace began to drive demand for more types of office products: filing supplies, indexes, notebooks, envelops, punches, art and drafting supplies. Large companies with hundreds of office workers needed office furniture, desks, files, bookcases, tables, and chairs. The office products industry continued to expand along with other major industries in the United States during the 20th century. This expansion was of course interrupted by the two World Wars and the depression of the 1930’s, but the ever-resilient American economy kept the office products industry growing rapidly.
Post World War II Era – 40 Years Before Online Office Supplies
During the post World War II era the office products industry began to expand at a rate never seen before or since. The exuberance of American society during these years was unprecedented. This climate spurred on thousands of entrepreneurs launching new office products dealerships in virtually every market across the country. The barriers to entry were few and as Heratio Alger would say, “ with a little bit of luck and a little bit of pluck”, one could start a business selling office products business to business working out of the trunk of a car. If fact there were several office products dealers that started from humble beginnings and grew into large multi-location companies with both retail operations and distribution centers capable of servicing businesses nationally. The office products dealers of the post war era grew into multi million dollar companies selling office supplies and office furniture to businesses and providing the service to go along with the sales. Companies like:
* Allied Office Supply Company – Chesapeake, VA
* American Loose Leaf – St. Louis, MO
* Bixby Office Supply – Grand Rapids, MI
* Bumbarger’s Inc. – Hickory, NC
* Costigan’s Office Supply – Akron, OH
* Eastmans Online Office Supplies – Los Angeles, CA
* Eaton Office Supply – Amherst, NY
* Far West Office Systems – Portland, OR
* Fishers Office Products – Boise, ID
* Grove Office Supply – San Diago, CA
* Huntington Business Products – Huntington, NY
* Ives Business Forns – New Orleans, LA
* J.A. Kindel – Cincinati, OH
* Kross Office Outfitters – Des Moines, IA
* Lewis & Christian Office Supply – Fort Wayne, IN
* L.E. Muran Online Office Supplies – Boston, MA
* Macke Business Products – Rochester, NY
* Midwest Office Furniture & Supply – Salt Lake City, UT
* Mile High Office Supply – Denver, CO
* H.C. Miller Company – Milwaukee, WI
* Northwest Stationers & Supply – Dallas/Houston. TX
* Olson & Gordon Stationers – White Plains, NY
* Paramount Stationers – Paramount, CA
* Premier Business Products – Pittsburg, PA
* Raque Online Office Supplies – Louisville, KY
* Ross Office Systems Supply – Tampa, FL
* St. Paul Book & Stationery – St. Paul, MN
* W. J. Saunders & Company – Chicago, IL
* Silver’s – Detroit MI
* Stationers Online Office Supplies – Indianapolis, IN
* Harry Struass & Sons – New Brunswick, NJ
* Strong’s Office Products – Albuquerque, NM
* Sturgis Online Office Supplies - El Paso, TX
* Town Office Supply – New York, NY
* The Wasserstrom Company – Columbus, OH
* Yorkship Business Supply – Philadelphia, PA
This is just to name a few dozen of the over 9,000 office products and furniture dealers
in the United States by the mid-1980’s. These were some of the office products dealers that developed the business practices, and eventually the technology like Online Office Supplies, that would later attract the attention of the very successful national office products retailers that started up around this time. The mostly private family owned office products dealerships were now stocking office products that would support the business office in the information age (Copy Paper, Fax Paper, Computer Paper, Data Storage, Diskettes, & Computer Supplies); along with other traditional office products.( File Folders, Pens, Pencils, Tape, Staples, Paper Clips, Binder Clips, Binders, Indexes, & Calendars). Office Products Dealers were innovators in service to their customer years before the Internet and Online Office Supplies. Just in time inventory and delivery systems required same day processing of orders followed by next day delivery. Customers could fax orders broken down by internal departments and receive desk top delivery to those locations the next business day.
1990 – The Internet – Online Office Supplies
By 1990 most businesses in non-rural America were using the Internet. Office Products
Dealers offered remote order entry; an early version of Online Office Supplies. Customers could logon directly to the dealers system to place orders. This was the beginning of the Online Office Supplies. The Online Office Supplies business continued to evolve and expand in the early 1990’s. Office Products Dealers who changed with the times, some over a period of more than 150 years, were mostly successful and growing. Dealers that did not change and evolve to become Online Office Supplies companies would not survive what was to come; an all out buying frenzy by the national office products retail chains. Starting in 1994 the large big box office products super stores began to buy there way into the delivery business. The fastest way to accomplish this was to buy the successful, now Online Office Supplies, dealers. And the rest as they say is history.
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