Three of the Largest Office Supply Companies in the United States

Because so many people have home offices today, there is a greater need to have a complete supply of things for a home office whether it is furniture, paper supplies or computers and other electronic equipment likes faxes and printers. With so many people working from home now, they need easy access to stores that will provide the various supplies necessary to offer a complete office space full of all of the details even small things like ink refills or toner refill for their computer. The top three stores that specialize in this area of retail are Office Max, Office Depot and Staples. This article will explore these three stores more completely and offer some additional information.

Office Max was formerly known as Boise Cascade Corporation and was originally a lumbar company that had been formed in 1913. In 2003, the company acquired Office Max Inc. making it doubled in size of office products and becoming a United States retail store. They have two segments, contract and retail today. The contract part of the business sells directly to corporate offices not only in the US but also in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The retail portion has over 1000 stores in the US and Mexico selling paper and office supplies to customers that shop at the stores. The retail also has three large distribution centers for all of the stock and supplies that need to be sold through these two categories. This business continues to be more popular and their sales continue to rise despite a difficult economy.

The other office supply company that is often confused with 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 of products in 2009. They have three segments to make this such a profitable company and they are retail division, business solutions division and international division. They make sales a variety of ways whether it is through their retail stores, by corporate contracts, through the internet as well as catalogs and call centers. How ever you can 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 last competitor in this office supply industry is named Staples. They are currently the largest of the three office products companies with over 24 billion dollars in sales last year. They also, started out as a store in 1986 and claim they invented the office superstore concept. They serve businesses of all sizes and are a presence globally in 27 countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. They sell office supplies, technology, furniture and also business services. They continue to stay ahead of their competitors with creating new concepts each year.

Most Americans have at least one or if not all three of these stores in their area. Now with this information, you know a little more about them as corporations.

Connor R. Sullivan recently started getting his ink refills online because of the convenience. He also orders his toner refill needs met online as well.

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