Author: chase

Office Max Touting Delivery Cutbacks as “Green” Initiative

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Business Week is reporting that our lovable ol’ pal OfficeMax is in the news once more, this time pretending to care about the environment while simultaneously making everyone’s life harder:

Companies have come up with many reasons for cutbacks in service. Saving money. Reducing the need for layoffs. Boosting efficiency.

But here’s a justification rarely heard: Spinning the cutbacks as a ‘green’ initiative.

That’s what OfficeMax has done. In the Washington, DC, area, it announced to customers that “beginning July 13, 2009, OfficeMax fleet trucks will deliver Tuesday – Friday.” Eliminating the Monday delivery will “Lead to a Positive Environmental Impact!” the announcement trumpets: “By compressing 5 delivery days into 4, OfficeMax will improve the metro environment.”

So here’s the deal: business lose out on Monday delivery. Workers are forced to work 10-hour days to maintain their current hours, and many will suffer cutbacks. On top of all this, the amount of “restructuring” that has to be done to accommodate the new plan will, of course, involve cutbacks to staff and salaries. But hey guys! It’s okay! It’s for the environment!

Just when I think I’ve heard the worst idea OfficeMax has ever had, they come up with something new. Kudos to you for being surprisingly terrible, OMAX.

Editor’s Note: I just found that awesome picture of the guy in the dunce cap. Part of me wants to use it in every post about OfficeMax or Office Depot, though I imagine the thrill will wear off eventually.

Cuts Force Teachers to Scrounge for Supplies

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The Athens Banner-Herald is reporting a story that is at once tragic and heartwarming: teachers in the area are being forced to pay for supplies out-of-pocket, and many of them are having to go without. Or WOULD be having to go without, if not for a special program put into place:

During the past five years, teachers from Clarke, Madison, Oconee and Oglethorpe counties have been able to stretch their supply budget by taking advantage of the Teacher Re-Use Store, a clearinghouse run by the Athens-Clarke Solid Waste Department’s Recycling Division.

Local businesses, like Merial, a veterinary pharmaceuticals company, and the University of Georgia, donate items that otherwise would end up in a landfill and the store invites teachers to go “shopping” for supplies.

“It’s kind of like a huge yard sale, but everything is free,” said Suki Janssen, waste reduction administrator for the Athens-Clarke Solid Waste Department, who runs the store each year at the recycling center on Hancock Industrial Way.

I have to say, this is a pretty excellent program. It’s recycling in the truest sense of the word, and I definitely approve. And hey, once the Re-Use Store has freed up a little budget money, send those teachers on over our way. We’ll take care of them.

Back to School Season: Gloomy Predictions

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According to “Malled!”, a blog focusing on South Florida retail, there are some depressing numbers out there about this year’s back-to-school shopping season.

Today, a survey came out from America’s Research Group that mirrors that gloomy retail prediction. It found that 34.4 percent of parents plan to spend less this year compared to last because they have “less money” (41.8%), “higher debt” (40.5%) and fear losing their jobs (8.2%).

“Back-to-school spending will be a minor blip on the radar screen for retailers this year,” consumer trend expert C. Britt Beemer, CEO and Founder of ARG, said in a statement. He predicted that back-to-school spending will drop 8.5 to 12 percent compared to a year ago, when back-to-school sales declined more than 5 percent.

The worst part about the economy still being in trouble around this time is that a lot of big-box retailers are going to try to use back-to-school shopping as a way to gouge innocent consumers. Since retailers know your kids need supplies, they’re going to do everything they can to increase their profits on those supplies and make back some of their long-last cash from earlier in the recession.

So what can we do? The same thing I always suggest: get your supplies cheap and fast from a reputable, reliable online dealer. Skip the big-box ballyhoo and order supplies from someone you trust, at low prices that don’t rise to fit the whims of the market. It’s just good sense.

Big Box News: California & Ohio Join Other States in Office Depot investigation

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According to EarthTimes.org, “Office Depot has disclosed on its investor website that the Attorneys General of California and Ohio have launched civil fraud investigations into its $700 million dollar “U.S. Communities” national contract that thousands of local governments, school districts and public institutions draw upon to purchase office and school supplies. California and Ohio join Colorado, Florida, Missouri and Texas in opening such investigations.”

According to today’s article, the National Office Products Alliance (NOPA) called upon the Office of the Attorney General of California to include in its investigation of Office Depot a thorough examination of the role played by the Walnut Creek, CA-based U.S. Communities organization which has allegedly received as much as $20 million in “kickback” payments from Office Depot for sponsoring the national contract now under investigation in six states.

According to NOPA, the article states, these two new investigations (CA and OH) again highlight the inherent problems associated with reliance on a single office supplies contracts by government agencies at all levels. “Strategic sole-source contracting has damaged competitive independent small businesses around the country, reducing vendor choice and raising prices for government customers,” said Chris Bates, President of NOPA. “The idea that sole-source contracting offers a ‘best value’ proposition should be questioned by every federal, state and local government and institutional entity in light of the results from so many audits and investigations.”

Corporate Cost-Cuts May Lead To Trouble Down the Road

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As an office-supply dealer, we’re definitely noticing that one of the first stops for a corporation looking to cut costs tends to be the supply cabinet. In general, this rough economy and its effect on the office-at-large is something that concerns all of us, so it’s always interesting to see others’ takes on it. For example, this new article from Reuters has some grim projections:

“If you cut into flesh long enough, eventually you find bone,” said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff in Toronto. “Cost cutting is not a bottomless pit.”

Firing people, introducing hiring freezes, halting investments, trimming budgets or even skimping on office supplies are time-tested ways to prove the old adage that a penny saved is a penny earned.

A slew of companies reported better-than-expected first-quarter results because aggressive budget slashing more than made up for falling sales. According to Rosenberg, 40 percent of companies missed their top line expectations in the first quarter.

Basically the article is stating that while slashing deep now can help pull a company out of a slump, it’s going to leave a lot of people stranded and playing catch-up when the economy finally rebounds. It’s a snowball effect: imagine you fire a lot of people, cut office supplies, reduce office space…now you’ve got more money and the economy is bouncing back. Not only do you have to re-hire everyone, you have to make sure they all have staplers and a place to sit.

It’s a logistics problem that I think a lot of companies are not yet taking seriously. We’ll see how many of them are left standing once the economy pulls itself up by its bootstraps.

Resource: The Cost of Being Disorganized

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The Cost of Being Disorganized

Around here, we talk a lot about being organized. Obviously it makes sense, it saves time, and it can be a lot easier than you think. That’s the focus of a lot of these blog posts; using simple supplies, easily attained, to make your life easier. But here’s something you may not have thought of: what does it cost you, literally cost, to be disorganized? There’s a site that recently came to my attention that helps you figure out just that.

Organize 4 Results, who preach the “GO System” (standing simply for, of course, Getting Organized) not only offer a comprehensive suite of resources for companies looking to get organized, but they provide a simple calculator to help you realize what it might be costing you to put off organizing. I plugged in some hypothetical numbers and got the following results:

Cost of Disorganization prepared for FakeCo, Ltd:

You entered this data:

Average cost per hour (including benefits) for an employee’s time:

$25.00

Time lost each day due to disorganization:

0.5 hour(s)

The number of employees in your team or organization:

500

Cost of Disorganization Results:

Disorganization is costing you about $1,500,000.00 each year. The real cost is even higher when you consider the cost of alienated and lost customers.

Yikes. As you can see, it’s not always about putting the right things in the right bins; organization is serious business. And if you’re serious about it, check out our friends over at Organize 4 Results. You’ll be glad you did!

Epsom Projector Beams Hologram at Office Supplies Fair

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More news from the International Stationery and Office Products Fair in Tokyo. This time it’s a holographic display being shown by Epson, and it could revolutionize the way we handle communications, computing and more. From the Dvice article:

Presented by Epson, the rear projector beams a video presentation onto a 0.3 millimeter thin slab of glass cut into the shape of a person. The result is an effect that almost matches the virtual reality of holographic displays, missing only the three-dimensional aspect.

You can check out video of the amazing display in action here.

Cool Office Supplies: Samurai USB Flash Memory Card

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At the Saudi Gazette of all places, there is a small article about the ongoing ISOT Office Products Trade Show in Tokyo. Highlighted here are USB Flash Memory cards shaped like Samurai Warriors.

With a lot of video games, movies, and television in Japan focusing more on the Edo period (1603 to 1868 AD), Samurai culture is once again on the rise in Japan.

Of course, when you’re making a samurai-themed USB device, and you’re in Japan, of course it’s going to end up being cute. Call me a sucker for these kind of novelties, but I’d take a teeny cartoon samurai USB stick over a plain ol’ black one any day. Of course, I’m sure the prices are outrageous. For most consumers, the regular kind will probably do just fine.

Article: Everything In Its Place

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From the Bend Bulletin comes an article about “Spacial Specialist” Dana Black, who helps clients get their messy lives on track. A particular place of interest for Black? The Home Office. From the article:

Whether you’re using boxes or cabinets that were gathering dust in your garage or buying cheap new plastic tubs, getting organized can help save you money in your home.

“The key is once you’ve set up a system, take the time to show the entire household how to use it,” says Black, who charges $55 per hour for her organizational work. “When I organize a house, I take sticky notes and write what goes in each drawer or cupboard, so the family gets used to it.”

You’ll find that with a clear system of organizational tools, you won’t waste money on buying items you already have stowed elsewhere or buying things that you’ll never use.

Black’s list of go-to gadgets and gear wouldn’t shock anyone (Filing cabinet or drawers with hanging files, drawer organizers, in-box/out-boxes, baskets or desk organizers, plastic storage tubs for extra supplies (also great for your kids’ school supplies), computer program for calendar- and address-book organizing, label-maker), but she puts them together in an innovative way and charges a pretty penny for her services. School yourself on some free tips by reading the article.