Category: Office/Business Resources

Big Box Watch: Office Supply stores hit hard by recession

Posted on by chase

Just browsing the big-box news and came across an article by Tribune Media Services columnist Andrew Leckey. While the bulk of an article relates to his personal encounter with a big-box retailer (describing it as “a ghost town”), he has some eye-opening facts at the end of the piece:

Financial results underscore a brutal economy and industry in transition:

— Staples’ net income dropped 14 percent in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 31. It suspended its store remodeling and is looking toward smaller stores.

— Office Depot is closing 112 under performing North American stores, reducing by half its new-store openings and closing six distribution centers. Including substantial charges, it had a $1.54 billion net loss in the fourth quarter.

— With charges, OfficeMax had a net loss of $396 million in its fourth quarter, suspended its quarterly dividend, eliminated jobs and delayed store remodeling.

The thing that I always notice when people are making these doom-and-gloom predictions for the office supply industry? They always seem to be referring to brick-and-mortar stores. First it was the big-box stores pushing out local enterprise, and now it’s those very same big-box stores crumbling in the bad economy. No one seems to mention that the new face of office supplies has been online retailing for quite a while now, and people looking to improve their office-supply experience only need to look as far as their computer.

This doesn’t help all those big-box retailers, of course, and I’m sad for the people who are losing money when office store stock crumbles. But for the average consumer needing office supplies, the future’s never been brighter.

Office supply model-making: shouldn’t you be working?

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It’s Friday, and as the work day and week draw to a close I find myself thinking about anything other than work itself. In this spirit, I found a post from Make magazine’s blog that collected all of their submissions that dealt with…ahem, non-standard uses for office supplies. I have to admit it takes me back; almost all of my office jobs have involved creating things out of office supplies at one point or another. I personally think this kind of three-dimensional doodling is essential for keeping workplace creativity and energy levels up (or at least that’s what I told my bosses), so take some of these ideas and run with them!

Office supply Mario Kart courtesy of Donald Kennedy, who hosts all kinds of impressive creations on Flickr as well as his personal page, KodyKoala. Made from binder clips, colored paper clips, and loose change. Those feet look pretty official, though. I think there’s a GI Joe amputee stumping around somewhere without his boots.

A couple of variations on the theme of the Starship Enterprise. The first one came from Instructables and has a saucer made from blank DVDs, a thick Sharpie body and binder clip arms attaching the ink pen engines. The smaller one is made from paperclips, small binder clips and a wall clip that actually detaches for extra realism! Well, not realism I guess. You know what I mean.

These sci-fi papercraft projects are pretty great, and require nothing more than some heavy paper or card stock and some white glue. It’s basically a matter of printing and following directions, and you end up with a cool, incredibly cheap cubicle decoration for the price of a printed sheet of paper. For more ideas, just run a Google search for “papercraft.” You’ll be amazed at the variety of stuff that will come up.

Last but not least, this incredible Star Wars Tie Fighter made from stray Starbucks materials. This model is completely made of paper cups, heat sleeves, coffee boxes, drink carriers and stir sticks. Pretty astounding work from Wired magazine photographer Dan Winters.

Check the Make Magazine post to see more examples of fine office supply creations, and feel free to email me your own at chase@ontimesupplies.com and I’ll be sure to feature them in later posts.

Big Box Watch: Office Depot Encouraging Employees to Lie?

Posted on by chase

When I set my various news programs to send me alerts relating to Office Depot, I had no idea just how deep the rabbit hole would go. Originally I want to keep tabs on the ongoing investigations into their alleged misconduct over government sales (which I also just learned extends to the GSA, the Defense Department and other high-level federal contracts), but I keep finding more and more horror stories from employees about the way the company does business. By way of LaptopMag’s blog:

“I have had various managers (including my store manager) insinuate, if not flat-out tell me, not to sell items to customers if they aren’t going to get any attachments … The managers would much rather us sell 3 laptops, a PPP, TDS, and case than a hundred laptops with nothing.”

The PPP mentioned there is the Product Protection Plan, an add-on warranty offered by Office Depot, and TDS is “Tech Depot Service”, an Office Depot-supplied tech support program. Since the likelihood of these services being actually “cashed in” is low, they’re a popular way for big-box retailers to pad their profit margins.

Selling a product that may not have a lot of value isn’t a crime, though; people have the right to buy or not buy whatever they want. However, misleading or misinforming people about what you’re offering them is not only bad business, the FTC has stated it violates federal law. Once again, it comes back to doing business with a company you trust. When you can plug your local company’s name into Google and come up with dozens of results featuring “fraud”, “lying”, “theft” and “criminal investigation”, it’s probably time to look elsewhere.

Meanwhile, check out LaptopMag’s series of articles. The first one they did about Office Depot Employees lying about notebook stock sparked an internal Office Depot memo and caused many employees to come forward to be quoted in the current article, which alleges changing price tags with photoshopped duplicates, “folding in” the price of warranties and other add-ons into clearance items, and more. It’s amazing that all this is going on in the face of their other criminal investigation. Kind of makes you glad you can shop online, eh?

How-To: Select a new Office Chair

Posted on by chase

After writing my article on ordering a replacement caster for my office chair, I realized that when all was said and done I would have rather ordered a replacement CHAIR for my office chair. This thing came from a big-box store as a stopgap measure to replace a nice leather chair I had inherited but eventually fell apart. What was supposed to last me a few weeks has turned into a few years, and today when I leaned back and a screw fell out of the bottom of the chair, I knew it was time to go shopping.

That’s when I realized I know nothing about office chairs. I mean, sure, I know you sit in them and they keep you off the floor and they’re a handy place to hang your coat, but other than that I had no idea what went into selecting one. I tended to just walk into the store and sit on things until I found one I liked and wasn’t too expensive. I decided to educate myself on the subject a little more and I’m here to pass my findings on to you.

Three options that all came up during a search for “office chairs.”
I think I notice some differences.

I figured my first step should be to call around to some leading manufacturers of chairs and find out what they recommend. The best info I got came from Hon, one of the top names in office furniture and all around swell folks. Between a helpful customer service call and a free .PDF they sent me called “how to buy office furniture”, I’ve compiled a list of their recommendations.

Operate within your budget. As much as I hate to be a stickler for price, this is one piece of advice I can agree with. While your chair budget should be high for a personal chair (the price is worth the comfort if you’re going to be sitting in it all day, every day), you still need to set one. The sheer amount of different chairs will stagger you if you go shopping by features before setting a price point. So narrow it down to a healthy price range, and then start looking at options.

Consider your Position. After you’ve decided on a price point, consider how often the chair is going to be used, and in what context. The amount of use a chair will see should definitely determine its type, and the Hon buying guide has some tips for this scenario:

1. Employees who sit six to eight hours a day performing multiple tasks should have high-performance task chairs with ergonomic controls that let the user adjust the chair to suit his or her body size and work style. Many chairs now use passive ergonomic adjustments that maintain a comfortable configuration as the user moves. (More on ergonomics later.)

2. People who use computers should have adjustable armrests to maintain a comfortable position at the keyboard. The chair’s tilt feature should allow users to look at the computer screen at a comfortable angle no matter how much they lean forward or back.

3. Executives may not need all the performance features as they spend less time sitting down, but may require leather or more high-tech materials to project a strong, professional image.

They go on to mention that a chair should have a solid warranty on parts and fabric, and to keep in mind that something like a waiting room chair or conference room chair should be treated differently than a “work chair”, since those are meant to be sat in by many people for short amounts of time, not one person for long durations. On that note:

Think ergonomically. You’re going to be sitting in this chair for a long time, so you need to know that you can adjust it to fit your ergonomic needs. In case you didn’t know, ergonomics is the study of suiting the work environment to fit the worker, in order to maximize human potential. It is often used as a stand-in for “comfort” when talking about the workplace. I plan on doing a whole post on ergonomics at some point, so for now we’ll take it to mean adjusting your chair to maximize comfort, reduce stress, and generate a comfortable work environment.

To begin, make sure your chair has all the adjustment options you think you might need. The Hon rep told me one of the reasons to start with price is that any chair that’s worth buying is going to have enough of these options that anyone will be able to customize it to fit their needs. After seeing some of their options charts, I believe it:

Okay. Up, down, back, forward. I can dig it. That’s what chairs should do, right? Seems pretty cut-and-dry…oh, wait. What’s that?


For a more detailed explanation of all these features,
check out the Chair Buying guide at On Time Supplies.

This is science at work, people. There’s a reason why ergonomics is big business, and why it’s important to take care of yourself by using the wealth of options available to you. Bad posture and poor ergonomics can lead to repetitive stress injury, chronic back pain, eyestrain and more. By making sure your chair has even a fraction of these adjustment options, you’re well on your way to customizing your workspace in a way that fits you.

A great resource I found is Ergotron, which has an ergonomic calculator  that tells me that I’ve got my desk set up all wrong. A couple of small tweaks and I can feel it working already, though I’m nowhere near perfection. Hopefully my new chair, whatever it ends up being, will help fix all that.

In conclusion, let’s sum up by saying there are three things to consider when buying a chair: comfort, quality, and price, and they all inter-relate while you are shopping. Set a price point that’s within your budget, and look for a high-quality chair from a reliable dealer that has features that allow you to adjust it to fit your comfort. Any retailer worth their salt should offer a buying guide for the chairs they sell, and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call them (or the chair manufacturer) with any questions. We’re all here to help.

Big Box Watch: Berkeley joins in Office Depot allegations

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Continuing the drama surrounding Office Depot’s alleged misconduct in dealing with state and local governments, the Director of Finance for the City of Berkeley, Robert Hicks, says the Office Depot company has overcharged the city by as much as a quarter of a million dollars during the course of a three-year, $550,000-a-year contract to provide miscellaneous office supplies and recycled copy paper to the city. According to the Berkeley Daily Planet:

Hicks’ revelation supported the allegations first made to the City Council last October by Diane Griffin, president of Radston’s Office Plus supply store of Hercules and a member of the board of directors of the Nation-al Office Products Alliance (NOPA).

According to the conclusion of an analysis of more than 100 pages of the Office Depot-City of Berkeley contract provided to the city by Griffin, Office Depot charged the normal retail price on 135 of what it called “core” office supplies, but promised a 55 percent discount to the city for items not on the “core item” list. Griffin says that in fact, Berkeley received only a 39.7 percent discount on those non-core items, the basis for her estimate of the $250,000 overcharge.

Hicks has also stated that his office will look into the dealings with Office Depot outside of the contract mentioned above, and that the actual amount of alleged overcharge may reach even more than $250,000. Diane Griffin herself said she believes the Office Depot overcharges on its City of Berkeley contract are accumulating at a rate of $8,000 a month.

The more I dig into these Office Depot allegations, the more bewildered I am by their apparent conduct. They go and offer people a ridiculous contract that no one could possibly match, and then not only charge way more than they promised but also, in some cases, far more than retail price. There’s a lesson to be learned here: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Report: SMBs look to reduce office supply costs

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According to a report from Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) have reported that they are turning to all sorts of cost-cutting measures in the wake of the current economic crisis. Thankfully for all those worried about their jobs, the report has shown that businesses have been able to significantly reduce their costs by trimming the often high price of printing and office supplies:

Reducing office supplies and printing costs is simpler to implement than other cost reductions, and the benefits can be immediate since all employees can play a part in reducing this line-item expense, the report found. The findings were released in an AMI study titled ‘Printing During the Downturn: How the Recession Has Created A Significant Printing Opportunity.

Due to their greater touch points and exposure, Medium Businesses (companies with 100 to 999 employees) are likely to be more negatively affected by the downturn and have initiated more cost cutting plans compared to Small Businesses (companies with 1 to 99 employees),” said New York-based AMI analyst Melissa Chong. “In a recent internal study, 77 percent of U.S. MBs and 47 percent of U.S. SBs, respectfully acknowledged that their company has taken measures to reduce office supplies and printing costs.”

While some see this as bad news for vendors of printing and office supplies, I can’t help but think of it as a solid opportunity for a small or medium business to form a relationship with a low-cost online vendor of office supplies. Through a combination of bulk ordering products to get the most value for their money and receiving helpful service to make sure the supplies and equipment they do have are being used effectively and efficiently, a small indpendent retailer can offer the small business more in the way of cost-saving measures than a huge conglomerate or a big-box retailer.

Once again, it all comes down to value vs. price. A lot of companies are only focused on getting the lowest price on office products, and that’s understandable considering the current economic climate. However, once companies start realizing that the most important thing for a small business is to receive the most possible value for every dollar they do spend, I think we’ll see a massive shift toward value-driven companies that provide a level of service and commitment that is usually not thought of as “standard” in such a profit-driven industry. I’m proud to be a part of just such a company.

Big Box Watch: Florida Office Depot Investigation Update

Posted on by chase

As many of you may or may not know, Office Depot has been under investigation since last year for allegedly using bait-and-switch tactics in their dealings with state and local government contracts. The investigation is based upon the accusation that Office Depot would offer a low price during their initial contract bid, and end up selling high-priced alternatives when it came time to deliver. There are also accusation of over-billing and general misconduct. Georgia, California, Nebraska, Florida and North Carolina have all launched independent investigations, with some states canceling contracts state-wide until a decision is reached.

Today, officials in Tampa made the following announcement in regards to their internal audit, courtesy of the Palm Beach Post:

An audit of Hillsborough County’s office supply purchases from Office Depot has found little evidence of overbilling.A review of more than 15,000 county transactions with Office Depot during the past several months found few instances in which the county was overbilled for items ranging from staplers to paper clips, county audit director Dan Pohto told county commissioners.

Commissioners declined to pursue further investigation of the contract. Pohto’s office was asked to review the contract after news reports in several states raised questions about whether Office Depot was overbilling its government clients.

This strikes me as more than a little odd. The state is calling off its investigation because they “only” found “a few” instances of overbilling? To me it would seem that once is enough to make me question my dealings with a company, and “a few” would certainly be a few too many. Fool me once, shame on you, and so on.

Regardless, it’s an interesting look into the mindset of the big-box office supply retailer. With an online office supply company,  manufacturers are able to set the lowest price they can to give the most value to the consumer, and the retailer is able to pass the savings on by keeping overhead low and back-stock at a minimum, as well as not having to worry about the logistics of renting and running storefronts and so on.

The big-box retailer, on the other hand, is almost by necessity focused solely on the bottom line. If profits drop, they have a board of directors, investors, managers and CEOs to answer to. They need to squeeze all the money out of the customer that they can, and it’s no real surprise that some of them might resort to less-than-honest tactics to do so, especially in this economy. To be honest, I’m surprised this is the first we’ve heard of it, and hopefully the amount of digging going into this case will expose any other fraudulent practices that may be being perpetrated by other companies.

Have you been bamboozled by a big-box retailer? Have a customer service nightmare story you want to share? Email it to me at chase@ontimesupplies.com and I’ll be sure to post it here. In the meantime, do your research, get to know your vendor, and make your purchases from a responsible retailer who cares more about getting you the best value than getting your last nickel.

How-To: Choose the perfect battery

Posted on by chase

how-to-choose-the-perfect-battery

For your high-output devices, there’s a chance that your regular bargain-bin batteries aren’t cutting it any more. I know I’ve bought AA batteries from the dollar store thinking I’m getting a great deal, only to have them not even be recognized by my digital camera. A lot of cheap-o batteries don’t even have enough juice in them straight out of the box to power a lot of today’s high-end electronics, but luckily there are plenty of affordable alternatives. Continue reading →

How-to: Customize CDs and DVDs

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One of the coolest trends to come about in the digital, computer-driven age of office products is the ability to personalize your media. No longer content with just writing “Presentations” or “Office Jams ‘09” on our discs with a Sharpie, true connoisseurs of personalized media now have a wealth of options to choose from. Let’s take a look at the various levels available.

Printed Labels

The most cost-friendly and accessible level of labeling discs, the printable label comes in a variety of formats. These labels come in a pack like standard printer paper, and are available in glossy, matte or even clear varieties. Simply choose a brand of label, download the free template for use in your graphics editor of choice, and choose your design. Since you’re printing directly on a self-adhesive label just as you would print any other document, the sky is the limit in terms of color and design.

There are plenty of freeware label creation programs out there, as well
as templates for Photoshop and other image programs.

As far as application goes, if you feel you don’t have a steady enough hand to line up the label yourself, there’s a really cool product called the Stomper: just lay your label down sticky-side up, put a disc upside-down on the top peg, and press down. Presto! Perfectly applied labels every time. I have one of these and I have to say when I got it I had what could be described as a potentially inappropriate amount of fun labeling every homemade disc I own.

The only real downside to printable labels is permanence; if the disc is handled frequently or will need to be accessed for a long period of time, there’s the chance that the label will start to curl or peel up off the disc. Since the cost is so low per label, though, it’s easy to just print off a replacement for a frequently-used disc.

Printable Discs

Taking the idea of a printable label one step further, it is also possible to buy special discs which have been prepared specifically to be printed on. Since you are printing directly onto the disc itself, there’s no worry of the label peeling off, and you still get the same range of color and design choices. Since there’s no flexibility in the disc, you may notice some “pass lines” from your printer; color gradients and edges can get a little fuzzy, so simple designs are usually the best.

The downside to printing directly onto a disc is the fact that you need a printer capable of doing it, but any modern office printer worth its salt should have this option, so you’re probably not in any trouble there. If it turns out your home or office budget doesn’t allow for purchasing special hardware, there’s always the perfectly acceptable option of printing your own labels as described above.

Lightscribe

Speaking of special hardware, one of the coolest innovations I’ve seen in a while is Lightscribe. Here, instead of using a standalone printer to print with ink on a disc, the Lightscribe drive uses the same laser to burn both your media and your design onto a specially-prepared disc. After the disc is finished burning, you take it out, flip it over, and put it back in the drive to have the top etched with whatever design you want. Special chemicals on the disc are darkened by the laser, providing a near-permanent design without using any of your precious printer ink.

The downside to Lightscribe is that the designs are monochromatic, since you are not using ink. The process is similar to woodburning or any other etching; you end up with a light grey design on a solid color background (usually gold, though silver and other color options are sometimes available). The cool thing is that Lightscribe drives work with the special discs to map your design’s location, so you can give multiple passes to darken the disc or even add on to the design later without worrying that it will come out crooked.

So there you have it! A couple of simple options to help you customize one of the most commonly used items in any office: the humble burned disc. In an age where data is increasingly passed around via USB stick or memory card, it’s possible that the burned CD or DVD is on its way out the door (which makes me feel old; remember when we were saying that about floppy disks?), but in the meantime, don’t be afraid to dress up your discs before handing them out. It will add an air of fun or professionalism to an otherwise blank canvas.

How-to: Be the best candidate for a job

Posted on by chase

It’s a fact: lots of people are looking for work right now. The economy isn’t doing so hot and a potential employee needs to do everything they can to separate themselves from the (increasingly growing) pool of applicants. Luckily, with the right equipment and a little gusto, it’s easy to make yourself the stand-out choice during a job search. Here are some helpful tips:

The Resume
Your resume and cover letter are most likely going to be the first thing a potential employer sees of you, and likely the last thing left on file after your interview has come and gone. Employers will look at it and see if they even want to meet you, and after they have, they’ll look to it for reminders of why they thought it was a good idea in the first place. It’s your first line of defense in the war on unemployment, and too few resume writers take it seriously enough.

Your first step is obviously compiling your list. Every resume will use some standard elements: skills list, job history, education experience, and so on. How you present these skills needs to be tailored to the job you’re seeking, and there are plenty of resources online to help with that. Here is a list of ten resume writing tips that I’ve always found really helpful. Look around a bit and you’ll find no shortage of other lists that will help you craft a resume that’s perfect for the job you’re seeking.

Now here’s the part that a lot of people don’t think about in this digital age: how your resume is printed. A lot of the time you’ll be able to get by sending your resume through email, but if a job requires a printed resume, think of it as a bonus: you get the chance to make it stand out that much further. I’ve always been a fan of Southworth Credentials Linen Paper because it’s got a rich, natural feel and it’s slightly heavier than standard printer paper. Anything that can give your resume some tone and a little extra heft (look for something higher than 20lb. paper, the linen linked above is 24lb., for example) will make it that much harder to overlook in a stack of identical inkjet copies. Granite is also a good choice for resumes, as it has a bit of slate coloring to make for a rich, professional appearance.

Business Cards
On the subject of printing, one of the things a lot of people overlook is the idea of making your own business card. Most individuals aren’t willing to shell out the high startup costs of having silkscreened business cards made, considering that any time the information on the card changes (address, phone number, etc.) an entire new set of cards needs to be made, complete with new startup costs.

Thankfully, companies like Avery (one of the biggest names in do-it-yourself labels) produce high-quality printable business card stock that allows anyone to print up professional-looking cards for a fraction of the price of pre-mades. I first learned of this when I made some cards with the dubious title of “freelance journalist”, but let me tell you, when “freelance” means “unemployed and broke”, it was cool being the only one in the room with a business card.

Just recently in fact, my boss found himself en route to a trade show and realized he didn’t have any business cards. Whereas a re-order from a major supplier might take weeks, he was able to sit down with a .pdf template and print himself off a stack before leaving the house. And in my opinion, the best part is the freedom self-printing can offer. I’ve known art students who recreated classic paintings on their business cards, theater folks who put full-color headshots in the corner, and lots of other equally amazing designs that were printed for the price of ink. Plus, you can print off a run of black-and-white basic cards to drop in fishbowls to try to win free sandwiches. Any product that comes with the potential to get me a free sandwich is A-okay in my book.

Envelopes and Address Labels
Once again, this is something that seems to have gone by the wayside in this digital age, but a hard-copy follow-up letter can go a long way to cementing yourself in your future employer’s mind as someone who is serious about the position. Even if your letter is basically a dressed-up version of “thank you for your time”, receiving actual correspondence from you after the interview is a way of letting them know you appreciate the opportunity and look forward to hearing back from them. Again, style goes a long way.

Use the same kind of high-quality paper you used for your resume, and pick up some matching envelopes to make sure your letter stands out from the junk mail. Next, you have another opportunity for creativity to shine through: custom address labels.

Once again Avery steps up the plate with a whole line of DIY products. If you just want to use a nice font and keep it simple, I’d go with the clear labels to let the quality of your envelope shine through. Or, you can pick up some opaque labels and do a little graphic design to make your return address really stand out. Tie it in with your business card and you’ve got a cohesive package that tells the job world that you’re a professional, or at least an accomplished amateur with all their affairs in order.

Lastly, and this may seem silly coming from a blog about office supplies: keep your chin up. Times are tough all over and lots of people are getting desperate for a job. And while it may seem like someone who is literally begging for work would be appealing to an employer, it’s much more important to have confidence in your abilities and skills, and showcase that in your interactions with your future boss. Play it cool and stand on your own merits, and you’ll be fine. Good luck, I wish you all the best.