OfficeMax: Are Office Supply Stores Dying? | Retail Archaeology
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- In this episode of Retail Archaeology we take a look at OfficeMax and it's parent company Office Depot.
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The bigger problem for these stores isn't even the internet, its their own damn prices. Few or none will pay 3x the price or more through their website either.
YES. And add to that, much of what they carry is last years models.
So true, I haven’t been to one in years. I buy ink online or places like Walmart. The time I went to their store was to make a quick .40 cent copy
i work at a supertarget and we used to have an officemax right next door but it closed down, not a good idea for them to be next to us xD
And it's always been like that. Even 20 years ago they were pretty expensive. But of course, back then they didn't have competition.
@@AltimaNEO They had plenty of competition, even then there were dollar stores selling much of the same stuff espeically the small items for far less. That's just 1 example of many.
I still wander into these office stores every so often just to visit before they die off. Largely due to very similar memories of the PC games, exploring so many cool shareware titles and such. Now the places are all just... sad.
Yeah, they're kind of like walking into a time portal into the past, but then you realize it's an alternate reality where everything sucks. I think I'm gonna go play some Raptor: Call of The Shadows now.
@@RetailArchaeology That is always the correct choice.
I used to work at a Staples. The only thing keeping these stores alive are the print departments and printer ink.
That still amazes me. You can buy prints, canvases, etc. super cheap online now; especially, around holidays all websites have promotions. Similarly, the ink or refills are much cheaper online, and there are plenty of instructional videos on TH-cam on how to refill them.
Litigious Society The printer companies now use a “drm” of sorts. The printer cartridges have a chip in the that talk to the printer. When they have been used a certain amount of time, the printer will tell you to replace it, even if it’s full of ink. Yes people have work arounds, some complicated shit, but 99.9999% of people will just buy more ink
@@bayareanewman1566 I know how to get around it on mine, and it's easy. Most of those instructional videos include that. It's why I can never understand why so many offices continue to use commercial copiers with servicemen, when they could save tons of money by having a few employees spend an hour learning how to use a copy machine outright own. I don't know how someone that ignorant, incompetent, or wasteful manages to advance in business.
I got a left handed ✂️ Fiskkars in the early 2000s but in 2020 they are no longer around: Office Depot, Staples etc...
The toner cartridge for my laser printer always goes out in the middle of printing a manuscript.I can't wait a day for delivery so off to Staples I go. I print much less than I used to, but there are a few people I work with who are stubborn and don't want PDF.
When the customer came in and the fireworks began I started dyingggg
Isabela Reister 😍
Do u give good head
Everett New Mexico LMAOOAOOO
That "customer" probably just wandered into the wrong store.
or was looking for a bathroom
it was actually a ghost
They were casing the joint. But then they went "meh, 2005 stuff and landlines, nothing to steal here."
I work in officemax, you'd be suprise how much traffic we get most of the time
@@chrollo7779 I worked there 9 yrs
I don't know how these stores have managed to last this long tbh.
online sales.
It makes no sense to me either. See my posts above about the crappy "management" and terrible wages.
probably back to school sales
Business accounts.
Well, online sells. Probably not much but it could help them just make rent for the next month. Also, having maybe two or three employees for the day. And a couple of night people at abysmal wages of course.
Another aspect that hurts Office Max/Depot are retailers like "Dollar Tree" and "99 Cents Only" stores (at least in the state of Nevada), where they sell basic office supplies for a buck; where comparable items would sell for twice or five-times the prices at places like Office Max/Depot.
In addition, those dollar stores sell the office supplies in small quantities, which is good for small business operators. After all, do small business operators need bulk quantity items, such as a 12 pack of 100 paper clips? Or a dozen pens? Whereas, small business operators can purchase the smaller quantity items at places like Dollar Tree, at significant savings, that Office Max/Depot do not offer.
It's the same here in California. When I was in school I usually bought my school supplies from 99 cent store and at least once or twice I saw one of my old teachers in there at the same time. Office supplies like that sell incredibly well at 99 Cent Store and Dollar Tree especially when it's back to school time
Unfortunately, many long-term retailers have extended contracts with distributors and wholesalers, and if they're really stupid with unions or unionized companies. This means they're stuck paying high prices for pallets of goods, and so they have to continue to price certain things outrageously on the shelves. This is the type of thing that often causes competitors to put them to an end.
A good example would be Toys R Us. Not only did they fail to establish a good online presence in the years leading to their demise, but they continued to buy high end pallets with exclusive merchandise in their later years, and most consumers looking for the non-exclusive items simply went online or elsewhere. In the case of Toys R Us it happened to be that new leadership took over, had a terrible three to five year plan that ignored online retail, and the franchise completely went under. Blockbuster was an even more infamous story, where instead of buying Netflix for a good price at the time, they opted to double down on the brick and mortar side of things, and by the time they tried to compete with Netflix and Redbox they were finished.
You hit the nail on the head, I work for a non profit for seniors, and run a remote site away from my main office, which is a 35 min drive one way, so it's easier for me to pop in the local Dollar General, and get supplies I need there like a cheap pack of pens, or some thumb tacks then going to my office, and some items they just don't order for us like white out pens, so when I'm making the bi weekly shopping trip in the next town over, I'll pop into Dollar Tree to get them if I need them, as like you said I don't need a dozen of them, just a 2 pack because they would dry out before I used them.
Also. People are cheap when it comes to that type of junk. Most people will use shoe boxes and coffee cups.
@Al Fabeech Ah! The dollar stores sells office _supplies_ . Whereas a stapler is an office _instrument_ . Staples for the staplers would be an office _supply_ .
I currently work at Office Depot and I can tell you the feeling of our slow decline is pretty present. Lots of our items are overpriced to the point that many non business owners shy away from shopping there, for example our planners. Another thing that is really hurting us as a whole are SPC's (store purchasing cards) which are given to organizations and large businesses, making a $300 purchase only $100 or sometimes even less. Now I know each store has their own way of functioning and their own rules but mine tends to have pretty bad communication to the point where someone ends up upset (customers or workers). Most of the things we do there are what cause us to lose more than anything. CPD tends to be the area that most of the time we charge for every little thing, including cuts and paperclips/staples. Not all is bad like the environment and the perks you get as an employee but sometimes there's nothing else you hear through out the day other than put a price on everything and sell more. Oh and reward sign ups! Those are awful and what managers stress the most on other than sales. I know the end is near, just like it was for Kmart and RadioShack..
I don't know if selling planners is a good idea, customers want a very exact planner, and the planners always change. Less time stocking (that's all there is to do), or god forbid try to sell something.
@@mstcrow5429 Totally agree! I've had customers get mad at me because, "that planner ain't right, it got to much stuff for me. It's expensive too!". I try to understand them but honestly I gave up on them. Sometimes the people there really just want to make your day worse simply because they're not happy and "don't like our prices, they're stupid".
How is management
I get you man. I'm currently working at one and they want us to at least get 2 people to sign up for rewards per day and get 5 dollars in donations AND get people to use the QR code at the bottom of their receipt and do the surver and they say that if you think the customer isn't going to give you 10 stars then just don't bother.
I used to work at a office supply store that had the expensive chocolate, soda, and other food that people never bought. So when they expired we coded as expired but placed it inside the breakroom for employee to eat. When it was the good stuff people used to hide it in the ceiling tiles so rest of us don't get to it
lol!
When it's back to school season, stores like Target and Walmart have sales on school supplies. Much of the stuff you find here can be cheaper at those stores.
Davin Peterson At my Target, generally college ruled notebooks were constantly out of stock, and they were generally only wide ruled notebooks. Where I lived, our Staples is generally fully stocked with stuff, so I can easily get college ruled notebooks there, even if I have to pay a bit extra. However, Amazon at the moment is probably the better place for school supplies, due to the amount of choice it has.
The landline section being that big does not surprise me. While landlines are pretty obsolete for personal use these days, every business and office needs them.
There are some companies out there that don't have any phones - current company has transitioned Teams for their external calls and ditched phones. "Soft phones" are also increasingly common, where you run VoIP software on your PC and use that. Small companies may just have mobiles for their staff. So whilst a lot of companies do have desk phones, it is something that could die off and probably has reduced over the years.
@@tharglet sorry...... but many businesses still use landlines and won't stop. medical facilities being one.
@Weenie Hut Jr's Don't forget 911 services. I keep a traditional POTS phone plugged in for this purpose and unlike devices, it does not need time to boot up. 911 service in my area is paid for through fees by the PUC, therefore, I actually don't have an account with a telephone service provider. I use Google-Fi both on mobile and desktop for communications, but it's nice to know I have 911 if I need it at no cost to me.
Headsets are now the rage
The internet has pretty much killed stores, human relationships, music, common sense, minds, attention spans etc. The next 20 years should be really interesting here in the USA :(
...did the rest of the world not get internet?
I remember when the Adobe portion of the racks had actual boxes of product instead of that subscription garbage.
I look forward to seeing a Company Man video about the decline of Adobe. It'll be a no-brainer why.
Me too.
A lot of people are switching to Affinity Designer because of this.
The only reason I use Adobe products is because I'm a student so my school pays for it. But I don't want a subscription for something I don't use often outside of class. I'd actually buy Adove products if they went back to a one-time purchase.
there used to be CD in the box, now everything's digital download
When the stores are gone where are we gonna test drive office chairs? 😢
At stores like Ollies or Big Lots maybe?
You guys get new office chairs sometimes? :O mine is probably old as building where I work.. :D
I need a new chair. Staples for me. I ln some instance. You need to feel the product.
I go to ether a used office furniture store (that is getting crushed by Amazon and "cheap Chinese imports") that typically sells Herman Miller furniture in the grey market or the "swap shop" at my local dump, where people can put decently used stuff in a community pile to take.
Anyone who thinks Staples has great office furniture in store must be insane. They are built to be looked at not to be used.
At a serious office furniture store.
Don't go to staples as much as I used to, but it's the one of the only places that I get a nostalgia high form as it still has the smell I remember that reminds me of shopping for HS supplies a week before school started. Also I seen some outrageous prices, but that $25.99 for advil is absolutely INSANE.
@nic p
I'm pretty sure they are aiming at walk in office managers that have a company credit card and they don't care what it costs . in the USA a lot of this stuff can be written off as a business expense.
@@horseathalt7308 yeah I'm an independent contractor myself, so I get it, but can't believe some one sold tablets for $26 a bottle.
horseathalt true.
@@horseathalt7308 Not any more. I've seen more and more companies tightening the wallet to the point that they start tracking expenses and will compare prices on several items before deciding to make the employee return several and buy them elsewhere. Slowly, more and more employees are learning that you can't go on a reckless spending spree just because it's the company credit card. Hell, one employee was stuck on her cell phone and I could tell she wasn't allowed to hang up. She had to say out loud every price and buy only the cheaper of the two.
I have eaten the biodegradable packing peanuts. They taste like Cheetos the puffy kind, but with out the cheese on it
You should buy some, put them in a bowl and put salt on them. Say that they are new salty corn puffs. See if people eat them
@@bayareanewman1566 The Chinese already do that, like calling plastic strips ramen noodles.
One time, I offered packing peanuts on Freecycle. I had a respondents ask if the packing peanuts were "deer-friendly" (made of biodegradable corn starch) as their criteria for picking up the items. Sorry, nope, and it's free.
There's always something...unsettling when going into an Office Max. It's like...you notice there's no one generally there, but you, and a couple workers.
I went in to get some ink cartridges at my local one...until I saw the prices and went to Best Buy instead.
You could saved time and got it there, they price match
@@Beargio-cy3gg Save a TON more by buying generic cartridges on ebay....you can literally get 4 sets for half the price they want for one....and no matter what HP or Canon tell you...SAME quality. I've been buying generics online for about 15 years.
@@Skulllywag A lot of the printers lock you out with software (which should be illegal) if they think your cartridge should be empty or is generic.
It's the store's idiotic board of directors. They never listen to employee complaints and are known for cracking down on complaints that could have saved their worthless, retarded asses.
I often buy ink online refurbished. However, if I need it the same day. I go to Staples. They are often cheaper than bestbuy. Also, some choice computer items were cheaper at staples.
Dunder Mifflin, the people person's paper people
I was scanning the comments to see if anyone made a Dunder Mifflin comment yet lol.
The only time i see office max store full is when its tax free weekend for school supplies 😅
I think the availability of snacks, minor ailment remedies is because some companies have a looser policy when purchasing "office supplies" than when purchasing "snacks" or "first aid supplies" so if they produce a known Office Supply Store Receipt and code it all to accounting as "office supplies" it passes muster way quicker than if you were to go get it Target next door.
There is also the convenience factor of just getting it from your corporate office supply account over dealing with the accounting department over that item on your expense report. I did not have a problem with it at my last company. They knew what I was doing. It was the workaround for a 500.00 budget for break room consummables.
Ding ding ding.
I worked at FedEx Office and they'd require things to be ordered from their own internal purchasing department/warehouse even if you could get it for half or a third the price elsewhere.
I went to OfficeMax in the summer of 2019 and I realized how absolutely cold it felt. The lights felt sterile and it was quiet, like no music at all. IIt just felt so empty, there was like no decor and it was just tiles and empty raised metal beam ceilings. I went in with a coupon and bought some uniball vision pens for like $12 for 12 which wasn't bad, but without the coupon they were over $20. Pretty sure I was the only person who was in there besides the employee. With how empty and awful the store felt, wouldn't be surprised if the one nearby me closed soon.
Mentally paying for $20 is alot. But is 2 hours of work. Trying to sell something for $20, it has a different meaning
My two friends and I who were working this store when you came in totally could've given you the full tour. We had a closet in the back for the mops and buckets and what not, it at the exact moment of this filming it was over molded and nasty, and the smell bro. Jesus. They never fixed that before they shut down the store about two months ago. I left long before that happened, but that place was abysmal. There were surprisingly busy moments in that store, but it was dead like that all too often. Just to mention, I think my two other homies commented here as well. We all got a group chat and one of em sent it to the other two of us. Whole video is funny af.
So you're saying that before too long we'll be seeing a "Rise and Fall of OfficeMax" vid on CompanyMan's channel?
Yep. Guaranteed. Lol
This was an interesting video. Back when I graduated from HS in 1991 my first job was at Office Warehouse setting up our store when it first opened. Later OW was one of the companies that OfficeMax purchased. After the store opened I worked in the copy center and used a huge Xerox copier and all the different binding machines, cutting machines, order rubber stamps, business cards etc. I enjoyed working there and had a lot of regular customers who would come to see me. I worked there part time even after I graduated college and stayed for 10 years. The store I worked in closed up maybe 5 or so years ago when a new Office Depot moved into a nearby shopping center. Today I hardly ever go in these office supply stores but the office I work in often orders supplies from Staples.
I bought my first own computer at Office Max in 1996 in Mountain View near Costco. Pentium 100 MHz with Windows 95 (r) baby.
That store is now a Ross. I went to their Going out of business sale. It was comical. The salesperson was trying to push an extended warranty on me for a a briefcase. the warranty was more than the briefcase..
Yes, me too in 1996 and with a similar configuration. Tower pcs were finally plentiful in 1996, but the cases were mostly white in color. Do you remember which brand you purchased? My store was out of stock on the advertised model, so I ended up purchasing one at Circuit City.
BadfingerFan It was an unbranded whitebox, nothing like Gateway or even eMachines. For the time it was already considered lower tier spec, so the machine was on sale.
@@maxoobbxxx8032
At least you could play Commander Keen on it.
Rest in Peace, Office Max.
Is Comp USA still around? I remember that chain too, 1990s, 2000s 2010s...
@@DavidLLambertmobile Comp=USA Disappeared right about the time Circuit City went belly-up. I bought some items from both 50-75% off when they closed.
Good riddance to stores like that. I worked at one of the big three (office max, staples, office depot) and the management is as corrupt and retarded as can be. You won't believe how disrespectful, abusive and stupid they are. But they really are. I seriously challenge you to work at one of those places. You will hate it within a month. Oh, and the wages are the same as a burger flipper at any fast food chain.
I used to work at Office Depot for four years during college. It was always busy back then (2004-2007)
I still shop there for furniture.
Did you know that at one point Office Depot had stores in the Phoenix area. They all closed in 2001, leaving OfficeMax and Staples as the city's only two office supply chains. Twelve years later, Office Depot technically made a comeback in Phoenix AZ, yet still operating as OfficeMax, as a result of OfficeMax merging with Office Depot in 2013.
So I recently was a manager of a staples store for a couple years and I will tell you that these companies are struggling. Every year most stores are losing 10% of sales and outdated merchandise. You hit it on the nail with they dont expect a lot from the storefront anymore, Sycamore partners bought out staples a couple years ago and said they only bought the company for the online presence. The only reason I can see staples or office depot surviving is on 1. The copy center, the margins are 70% and up over there. 2. Back to School season. 3. Ink as Ink and toner sales represent 25% of their business entitely... (talk about putting your eggs in one basket) and for atleast staples they're growing Chair section. But if you ever manage one of these stores expect constant district manager calls talking about selling protection plans and the total package, which just means hosing the customer down for at least $300 on top of every computer sale doesn't matter the original cost. These stores are going away and take a look at the staples reddit almost every employee talks about being the used car salesman of retail, You need this protection plan, you need to upgrade to color prints (for example a B&W print is 15cents per page and a color print is 87 cents per page). In my district the biggest problem was the bloodbath of managers leaving the company due to these ultra metric focused work environment and lack of substantial pay. I got exceeds for my yearly review and only got a 10 cent raise and when I got the raise, they didnt even give me that it was 5 cents. Office supply stores are going away and soon
Start looking while you can bud.... It’s sad that most of these stores will close soon but man you gotta look after yourself. I’m a teacher, I have a ridiculous love for office supply stores, but I know it’s not lasting for too much longer.
@@andyn46 Yeah I've actually just found a job in a bigger company that's paying me way more then Staples, as I said in the comment it's hard to retain talent with a huge stress load and lack of substantial pay
I buy stuff from them online. The only time I need to go to the storefront is either to pickup my order. Or if I am desperate for ink.
I still like to shop in-store and actually SEE what I am buying AND to support LOCAL JOBS!!! As well ... many BRICK stores will PRICE MATCH the CLICK stores and that allows me the BEST PRICE every time!
The prices with the candy and snacks are expensive because it’s meant for people who’s use company cards..
It's the same reasoning that Radio Shack used on charger cords and cables. If you need something quick, and you can expense it later, it doesn't matter how much you paid, as long as you have it. I would imagine that the Office Max/Office Depot locations near a convention center do well for this reason. I used to compile receipts to help the field engineers remit payment for their work. It was often a case of expedience. Their time was worth more than finding a cheaper resource. I always respected and appreciated the ones that didn't use the hotel mini bar as their personal supermarket.
Or as I mentioned in another comment, some vendor that your department does business with gives you a gift card for an office supply store
These stores is like being teleported back to 1999.
Minus the customers
@@SuperBoomshack True! :)
Office Max Time Machine
It's crazy to think I used to go school supply shopping at these places back in the day.
The biggest reason for the downfall of office supply stores in my opinion is the prices. There is nothing at Office Depot/ Office Max that I can’t get at Target or Amazon for much cheaper. We lost one of our Office Max stores a few years ago, now we are left with three Office Depot locations. Although my local Office Depots place a larger emphasis on furniture, and they are much busier than what I shown in this video. I think there is still a market for office stores, but much smaller, maybe the size of a Radio Shack for example. If they stick with furniture, school supplies and small office supplies I think the retail component of the business could limp along a bit longer.
It's also crappy management and the lack of staff. You should go work for one for a month. They're the worst, most abusive managers you'll ever come across. And the wages are pretty bad. After 5 years, you're still going to earn only $10-11 an hour.
I remember when you were in my store. You should have told me you were doing a documentary about the slow death of Office Depot Office Max I would have shown you the mold closet. For the record they laid me off at the beginning of the year and closed the store a month-and-a-half 2 months ago.
I quit from this exact store one month ago. I'm laughing my ass off since I know every isle, stain and product you're talking about. Haha!
I felt something was happening when my local Staples shrank their store by half a couple of years ago. They don't sell nearly as many products as they did before. Nice employees, but a sad place to visit. I agree. Its a dying store style.
I remember buying one of my favourite PC games from Office Depot/Staples back in 1999. I still play that game from time-to-time.
Good to know about the graphing calculators. My parents tried to give me a lower priced Casio version (with it's own giant instruction booklet), but all the textbooks and class instruction were centered around the TI's so we had to give in. I never got rid of the TI one. It'll be incredibly darkly amusing if it ends up one of my kiddos uses it
I'm in the so-called "Silicon Valley" and we have a large chain of stores called Fry's Electronics which were pretty largely office supply stores with computers for sale and radios and stuff, and they're dying out. All closing.
You know Fry's wasn't exclusive to the West Coast, right?
i had a ex girlfriend who worked at Office Max back in 1988 when it first opened and well before Office Depot bought them out. Business was incredible. She worked the customer service counter and she was busy all day and night. Now looking back, this business model is dieing and nobody on the corporate level of these companies seem to care. They know the forecasts of future store sales is looking bleak and they still run the company into the ground. That's because they get paid large yearly salaries and when the company files for bankruptcy protection, they just jump ship and get another position at another company without worries. It's really sad.
I used to work at an Officemax from 2016-2019, the company is hopelessly trying to come up with new ideas to save its retail business. But unfortunately, the turnover rate at these stores was incredibly high even for a retail store, we were expected to run a whole store with only 2-3 employees (yes that's including a manager). You mentioned how you weren't sure how these stores were keeping up with operating costs, well the short is that these stores are super cheap to run, they have been around for 20+ years so they are in aging buildings where rent is cheap and as before the company spends next to nothing on payroll. Also, a lot of the clientele is older and the company tries to take advantage of the lack of tech literacy in these people and often pushed us to sell un-needed and expensive things and services.
We mostly have Office Depots around here, and yeah, nobody's ever in them. Furniture and chairs are decently priced during sales though; they seem to be flexible on price too with larger items.
I visited an Office Depot in Millbrae, CA that seemed too big for the amount of merchandise. My husband mentioned that it used to be a Bel-Air market at one time. The place had empty areas and dirty floors. I wonder if this location may close.
There's always a small amount of customers in our office depots. But it's socal we are alot of peeps. The only area always void of life is the furniture area
6:21 As A Current College Student, You also can't have a phone out during a Test, Quiz or Exam.
JT LovesCodeLyoko I think some classes you have to use the school supplies calculators for the test, because they make fake calculators that are running Android and have apps that can do the work for you
Brian Puente wow. how ingenious lol
Brian Puente yeah true.
Phones will also run out of battery much sooner than a calculator.
I live in Finland and know nothing about all the stores and locations but I still think that it's very interesting to watch these videos :) Keep up the great work!
About five years ago I worked for OfficeMax/Office Depot I was for all intents and purposes a Store Manager. What kept these stores in business were paper products and their Print center services. The Margin on paper products was insanely high, along the lines of 75% to 50%. Print center Services were even higher, Just to have someone help you design a set of business cards and then to print them for 200 cards could run you upwards of $75 dollars. Also one of the main things they stressed were protection/replacement/repair plans on Technology and Furniture Items. You could see a $1000.00 laptop but unless you sold a $200- $300 protection plan with it the District Manager would raise holy hell. Then they started up with the In store tech support. This was a scam from the get go. Let's say a customer brought in a 12 year old PC and complained about it running slow. You would "Hook" this boat Anchor up and run a "PC Health check"
Now as anyone knows unless you've done hard ware upgrades over the years or you bought a very high end model to begin with a 12 year old Machine will not perform as well as it did, especially when it comes to net surfing or when running newer and more modern software. So the "tech" in store would be asked few questions by this PC health check program. Like "Is the Machine running slow Etc. If the "tech" answers yes the Scan cycle would run and it would always come back with a notice. "Malware detected" Then the "tech was supposed to sell Virus removal and tune up for $99 bucks. However if the tech did not select Yes, the scan 99.9 percent of the time always came back with "No issues found" In short the Company in my opinion was exactly Ethical when it came to this particular practice. FYI The techs were for the most part Not specially trained, all it took to be a Tech at the time was saying you understood how Computers in general worked.
That explains a lot.
Walmart is killing them off too. It's a crying shame.
Nope, they're killing themselves off. Go work at one such as Staples. They are run by people who are just TERRIBLE.
Going into OfficeMax was useful when a secretary could be sent to fulfill a purchase order and everything could be accounted for in one bill.
Just this pastxweek I went into my local Officemax for the first time in years and was wuite surprised by how busy it was. I really expected a ghosttown but I actually had to wait in line at the copy area to have some pinball machine schematics photocopied.The people were super helpful and friendly. I bought a couple of flash drives and they even scanned my schematics and put them on the flash drives for me.This store in my area is in a very busy part of Clackamas,Oregon near the mall(which is doing well also),so it may be the exception,but hopefully they can stay in business.
That's the difference, us Oregonians don't have many options so the few places we do have get good crowds.
They have break room stuff because some companies have an account setup and that is often the only place a purchasing person at a company can shop for stuff.
honestly it’s back to school season is when theses stores thrive
One year, super busy just customers everywhere for B2S. Then year after that, where did everyone go?
I used to work there before our location got shutdown last year. We were lucky if we got more then 5 customers a day. Plus, our managers pushed us to lie to customers and sudo Force updates. I’ll kinda miss them but engh. The store looks the same as I did when I was a kid 20 something years ago
Wow, wish I found this video when it first came out.
I used to work for a company that wholesales office products, and yes, a lot of the trends you mentioned in this video are spot on. It was interesting seeing the trend of overall sales in the industry at large decline over time, and the competitive factors that caused the change.
The interesting part is that the same trends that have hurt consumer sales are hurting B2B sales, and many companies either were unable or unwilling to change with the times.
And now with the pandemic making many MORE people work from home...
Whenever I go go into Office Depot if feels like no one loves it. The store just feels old and the prices are sky high.
PS. The OfficeMax employee subreddit is the best
really?
Yeah I honestly think that office supply stores have missed the mark on the market changes.
There is no reason to buy stuff like software, candies, and the like. But, there's a demand for basic office supplies. Maybe desks, chairs, computers, network equipment.
They've spent too much on the old model to change.
I've been a employee of Office Depot/OfficeMax for about 11 years now and have been very happy with it. Started as a cashier and worked my way up to my own store. So it breaks my heart that each year they are cutting labor costs and closing stores that once used to be very popular in their areas. They are always changing things around to keep from going under. Thankfully the store I've worked at is high volume so if we did begin closing stores in our area we'd be okay for a while longer.
I find it interesting that so many people complain about the prices when Office Depot and OfficeMax price match with Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target. For some items you have to get them at back to school season when they are marked lowest. That’s when you can find deals on notebooks for 10 cents and sharpie packs and highlighters for one dollar. This store did look pretty rough, luckily my local OfficeMax was just remodeled and looks nothing like this
No we (former we) don't pricematch with Amazon. Occasionally, a flyer, on the occasions when there even are flyers, will mention pricematching with Amazon for that week only, although you'd have to be tracking things to know that. But if you can go to say Target and buy something, you're going to do that instead of finding the item on Target's website or going to Target and taking a pic of the price tag and then going to OD for a price match.
mstcrow5429 it was just an example if you were in an OD or OM store and wanted to see if the stuff you were getting was cheaper somewhere else. And Office Depot does price match with amazon now, it just has to be sold by amazon.
@@andybuddemeier6821 Within the past couple of weeks? Did corporate not tell anyone?
@mstcrow5429 it’s been a thing for a few months, as far as I’m aware. It’s very selective though as to what products can be matched on amazon. It has to be sold by amazon.
@@andybuddemeier6821 Well, corporate seems to be saying different things to different people again.
I miss pre-Depot OfficeMax. They had way better clearance stuff.
Yes i agree!
I work at a Office Max and I do see a decline. When people ask where I work, I tell them and they’re like, “That place is still open? But it’s always so dead.” And I tell them yes and no. We do have our busy moments and then we don’t. Where I live the closest Staples is about an hour away and even that store is smaller then the Office Max I work at. From what I see our biggest sales are mostly in ink/toner, print department, and tech. A lot of small businesses from the area come and get things printed off for their business. Whether it be business cards, just colored or B&W copies, spiral bound books, or even lamination. Most places around where I live don’t do most of that, also we have some awesome tech people that help solve your tech problems! I always try my best to give the clients I interact with the best service I can give. Most people don’t know that we price match! That includes Amazon (as long as it’s not sold by a third party), Walmart, Staples, even our own Office Depot/ Office Max website!
I love these kinds of stores, specially Staples (I'm not from the US but I go sometimes on vacations). I hope they don't die
I don't care. They're run by TERRIBLE, cruel people. You'd wonder if some of them were SS thugs in a former life! They treat employees so badly that employee turnover is the highest I've ever seen in any industry. I worked at an office supply store and we had a new manager every 2-3 years. And cashiers/customer service people, even if they were very very good at their jobs, lasted only 3 years.
Awww yes the classic stained carpet in a office supply store. Every office supply store has one
Apustry cleaner is cheap. It works.
Most of our stores first got rid of ALL furniture, then downsized nearly all computer gear, and now supply stores around have severely made their stores half or quarter sized. There literally is nothing I desire to purchase from them anymore. I will hit Michael's for crafts and art supplies, even Wal Mart. And I can no longer look at software because software has been dead for over a decade. I'd go to Target for software but not anymore I no longer shop Target too.
I've been one of those stores and they've downsized it so much that there's hardly any room to move around! They cut out so much stuff that you'll hear customers complaining about the SAME thing over and over: "Why don't you sell that any more?!" Then the customer stomps out the door.
When I was in high school, I bought my laptop from here, few years later I was buying off the internet. Now the local store closed and was replaced with a Tracker and Supply, which are popping up everywhere now and I'm not sure why. Doesn't help that OfficeMax was right in front of our local Walmart too.
Tracker and Supply?
@@aprilhdunmoyer Its like farm and pet supplies mixed with outdoor stuff and gardening with a little bit of fanel clothing.
I recall Comp USA but I think a major tech firm or Amazon purchased the chain in 2010s era.
Tractor supply
Uncertain Wave Tractor and Supply
My neighbor and I visited an Office Depot, Staples and a Fry's for new computers with Windows 10 last month. The winner for both of us was Staples.com.
1. The person at Staples encouraged us to buy at Staples.com for the selection and 30 day return policy over Staples in-store 15 day return policy. We actually visited two locations. The San Jose, CA location was a newer location over the Campbell store. The Campbell store had items for ancient tech like a Otterbox case for older galaxy S4 models at 20.00. That's a bargain.
2. Fry's electronics, next to the Campbell Staples store ONLY had five unknown brand laptops on display, and not much else other than As Seen on TV crap or cheap knock off perfume. It was sad and pathetic. We saw a team tearing down empty racks. Even Frys.com website was weak on the offerings.
3. We visited a newly remodeled Office Depot in Los Gatos. There was a new and beautiful area to showcase computers, and workspace furniture. The other office items were sequestered to a walled area in back of this modern showroom that looked like it stayed in the early aughts. The store also used part of their location to rent co-working space for small startups and freelance tech workers with a conference room, and other tech needs. Prices weren't great on the laptops.
I agree with you on the status of these stores.
One of the good things about this store vs Walmart is that they do price match, be it through paper adverts or online. They do carry some items that Target/Walmart do not carry hence the higher price. Best Buys is another example of a struggle with electronic office supplies. These stores were great throughout the 90s because online shopping plus online businesses weren't a big thing.
That big yellow halo has been hanging from the ceiling for decades.
I worked there back in 2001-2002.
Everything was about "average ticket." To the point where I got chewed out for buying a Snickers bar and soda to eat on break, because it brought down the average ticket.
Oh, and the system wasn't smart enough to tell the difference between a void and a sale. So, if you screwed something up on a register, you had to call over a manager to jam a paper clip into the void key button on the register. This broke all of the register keyboards.
And all the managers were weird and racist/homophobic. Including the guy who drove a new Beetle and smoked Virginia Slim's.
I walked out the day before Xmas Eve when the aforementioned manager went off on one of my cashier's for asking about her hours over the walkie, then two guys had a fistfight over the 17 year old girl who worked in the copy center in the break room.
Sounds like a tv show lol
Started with staples. Has been going on for a while. They are expensive.
Why do you think EVERYONE shops only at Staples when their rivals Office Max and Office Depot offer the same things for similar prices? Why are so many people blindly loyal to Staples? The two Staples stores in my city went bankrupt within less than five years but they're still earning more than the other two. Makes no sense.
I worked at a new OfficeMax around 2006. We were ahead of the time in terms of retail equipment and strategy. We had touchscreen registers, radio headsets for inter-employee communication, and spent hours training for top notch customer service and sales techniques. The implementation was excellent, but there's no way they could stay relevant now that everything is so accessible and competitive online. My store had a 3-year lease, and when it was up they shuttered.
Now no training on how to sell anything.
I work in these stores. The funny thing about my store is that when Office Depot started changing things constantly every few months from one thing to the next, things started going down in our store. We even had customers state that the fact something would be one way this month but then a couple of months later be something else, and then something else again a few months after that, made them lose confidence in the company. They told me that if we can just stop and not change every minute that maybe they will come more. Some of the things and constant changes they have done in the Tech Center also hasn't helped, as our store has gone from one of the top 50 stores, to now one of the middle of the list to lower of the list stores, all because they kept changing something every few months.
"A lot of the ways businesses do business is change and it seems like Office Max really hasn't kept up with that". Ain't that the truth. It looks like the same store, down to the printing calculators and landline accessories that were already out of date when I last worked in one 16 years ago.
A couple of interesting tidbits from back then:
-Our top selling item was a small "postage" scale. We could identify the customers who were going to ask where the scales were before they asked. We had to move the scales behind the counter to stop them from getting stolen.
-Not sure if they still make employees wear headsets. Back then, since there were some customers but not enough they pushed us to sell aggressively to what customers did come in the store. If you were talking to a customer, it was company policy that your co-workers not with customers were to constantly chatter, talking in your ear the entire time to give you selling tips and mention up-sell items. It felt sleazy and distracting when you were legitimately trying to have a conversation and help someone; I'd usually turn the headset off if I was actually trying to be helpful.
Trust me, those scales are NOT for mail. They're stealing them to weigh dope.
Candy at Walmart is a hell of a lot cheaper than at Target or Amazon.
Not if you take it and deny arrest. Whether politely or not is up for debate.
My dad and I owned an office supply store back in the 80's and 90's. We started a "mail order"
division in 1989 because brick and mortar stores were already starting tank. Our web site was mostly downloading a PDF of the catalogue and then ordering from that. We also send out tens of thousands of the catalogues. We carried about 15,000 SKUs in the brick and mortar store but only the top one thousand best sellers online. That worked for a couple years, but then Amazon started taking the online sales and, as you say, Walmart and Costco started to cut into the brick and mortar sales. We just couldn't make money having ti keep every type of things like binder clips and three ring binders. Back in the day, we were the only kind of store that carried those items, but that all changed by the mid-90s. We sold out to a larger regional office supply company in 1995. It was a lot lower than the price we wanted, but we were generating losses every year we stayed in business. That company made it until 2003 before they finally filed for Chapter 11. The chief value of Office Dept is the fact they won about 65% of their stores, so it's real estate rather than retail that makes them valuable. With a place like Amazon carrying essentially every kind of office supply under the sun with two day delivery and no or minimal sales tax, brick and mortar is doomed.
Sar Jim Good insight! Out of curiosity did your father and you go Into another business after that?
@@bayareanewman1566Thanks. My dad retired. I went back full time to what I had been doing part-time when I went into partnership with him - construction project management.
I used to work for OfficeMax, in the private ownership days. If you want to know why OfficeMax was so strong back then? It was because of Michael Feuer, who started the company in Shaker Heights, OH.
Back then? OfficeMax used to intentionally undercut their competition: the prices were NOT overpriced like today's OfficeMax; the General Managers had to 'compare' the prices to the local direct competition, and Mark down everything by 15-18%. "Savings is the bottom line!" was the mission slogan. We wouldn't be undersold back then. The stores all had overnight stockers, which ensured that the stores were always fully stocked.
Michael Feuer used to relish in beating the snot out of Staples and Office Depot, and would even taunt them regularly in Crain's Business interviews. We were so dominant, that Cascade bought the company for a hefty sum, in huge part, because Feuer wouldn't budge on his asking price. He only sold because he just felt like retiring.
Today? It's a far cry from those days. They shrunk the stores and jacked up the prices, while changing brands toward an extremely low quality office furniture base.
I used to work at Officemax back in 2001-2002 before Amazon even caught on. It still looks almost the same, with the same prices! It's no wonder they are floundering. Of course that store closed about 10 years ago. We still have Staples near by though.
My mom liked going through these stores and tbh so did I. I'm definitely a notebook/binder/paper organizer things person, it's kind of weird. I liked the smells of all the paper and boxes all around. I liked sitting at the desks and twirling like an important person while she shopped. Still, I haven't been to one in my adult life because I have known I can't afford anything there. Good memories, but it does look their time is up unless they get a killing on back-to-school sales.
I used to work for Office Depot. It was fun. What keeps these stores alive is the corporate accounts. The retail stores are just there to get random customers that need a very specific item. Like a planner or pink printer paper. Maybe soon they will close retail stores and simply keep the retail accounts with stuff being delivered from a warehouse.
In case anyone is wondering first song is Fiscal Fusion by Dan Manson. Whole album is good for videos like this.
Remember when Gateway computers were in OfficeMax? With the big cow painted wall. That was pretty cool.
It's super interesting to me how there was practically a subculture of of office life in the 80s and 90s. Seems like with everything going online, even working at home and all that, people dont want a generic industrial office chair and desk. They want a chic desk and chair from, say, IKEA.
1. I also remember using a graphics calculator in the late 90s. We were struggling so my parents bought me a cheaper Casio calculator instead of the TI-82.
2. My dad worked in an office and sometimes bought home unused disposable coffee cups with cardboard handles. I thought those cups were the height of sophistication and glamour.
The only reason I go into an Office Max every few years is to replace my office chair. Being overweight, I just wear those poor under-engineered things out. Hard to test-sit chairs over the net.
So dystopian that the expectation is that teachers should have to buy school supplies out of their own pockets, instead of it being included in the school's budget.
TheUtuber999 yeah. That is why people don’t try to become teachers.
That’s why teachers buy their supplies at the dollar Tree.
Rest in peace, Dunder Mifflin Paper Company!
RIP, Circuit City, Toys R Us, Sears, KMart
Staples was went bust and was another company before it folded a year or so later in the UK. There is now Rymans a chain of small cluttered shops, and the much maligned WHSmith that charges high prices for bad store layout, cleanliness and mess, with bad service and slow service thrown into the bargain... 228 years old but that is not an achievement anymore as the last 20 have been an astonishment as everything they sell is on Amazon or at Tesco and ASDA and kids getting school stuff if they randomly decided to go shopping for stuff they would get it from Poundland, Paperchase or Rymans
Lots of industrial supply and office supply stores stock things that you could get much cheaper elsewhere as a convenience, lots of businesses have charge accounts that issue purchase orders and get delivery. Corporate accounts frequently get 30% off the listed price as well, so the on the shelf price is pumped to protect the actual selling price.
You can go buy something at the store for $3, fill out an expense form, wait for your expenses to be paid...or you can add it to your OfficeMax order and get your sugar cubes, mints, creamer and KCups with your pens and toner.
Here in Australia Officeworks (the biggest office supply store by a huge margin) seems to be doing reasonably well. They seem to be making good money from things like printing (especially posters/banners/signs/other large items), laminating, binding etc. They also do well from school supplies (by marketing themselves as the cheapest place to buy all the things your kid needs for school). Their "price beat gaurantee" (which isn't as easy to claim on as it looks) helps draw people in the stores as well. Officeworks being a big player in the direct-supply-to-businesses market probably helps as well.
Oh and somewhat interestingly Officeworks is owned by the same mob that own the Australian version of K-Mart (which no longer has any connections to the US version other than the name and any licensing that might be attached to that).
My local OfficeMax/Depot left the Mall of GA area around 2012. The very last time I went there were NO customers but they were full of product with only two employees (that I can see) in the store. My mother went in to get her printer ink cartridges refilled and was told, "we're not doing that anymore". Bed, Bath and Beyond eventually filled that space and Staples is still down the street on the other side of that Mall of GA area.
I watched your 99 cent store video and it got me ADDICTED to 'Electric Elevator'. Anytime I hear it in your videos, I get so happy. It makes me feel like I am a little toddler again in the 80s. :) thank you.
One reason I like to have them around still is the printing services. They are the only place I can upload a document online, pay a few dollars, and have it printed on nice paper. Saves me the trouble of owning a printer and stocking paper
I remember We use have an OfficeMax here in Corpus Christi. It Closed Iong while back It's Now A Jo-Ann's (which I recently visited and it's just as dead as this OfficeMax store, possible idea for a Future video).
>Jo-Ann's
Hoo, boy. I've heard of the Woodland, CA one having homeless people come in and huff cans of paint. I heard this from a Vacaville, CA Home Depot employee that's in contact with her and Home Depot's having the same issue, but with random homeless huffing canned air instead. Vacaville's Home Depot is a regular target for counterfeiters (or the counterfeiter's customers) to try to offload their fake bills.
@@Code7Unltd I worked at a Home Depot at the very outskirts of suburban St. Louis, and Home Depots are huge targets for counterfeiters, shoplifters, and scammers. We had multiple palettes of stolen merchandise from crime rings the police recovered that couldn't be sold because they were evidence. Scams are so common that Home Depot has a policy where if you make a suspicious amount of returns without a receipt, (they accept returns without a receipt if you have the credit card you used to buy the item) they will ban your credit card number from being able to make any more returns.
Last time I went to that Jo-Ann's a guy followed me to my car (it's next to a liquor store so I think he intended to beg for money) and I've been too nervous to go back ever since. But I guess I'll have to next time I need fabric.
@@StarlightPrism Wal-Mart supercentres sell fabric cheaper.
With a Wal-Mart like that nearby, who needs a Jo-Ann?
@@Code7Unltd My local Wal-Mart does sell fabric but it's a much smaller section compared to Jo-Ann's. Besides, you can get the Jo-Ann fabric for a decent price if you go during sales or use the coupons. I think all of the major craft stores do that thing where they jack up the prices and you have to use a coupon or sale to get the legit price, hence why there's ALWAYS a "40% off one item" coupon available.
Maybe if they didnt overcharge for EVERYTHING. I went in there to get a bubble mailer b/c the dollar store was out. What would have been $1 at Dollar Tree, $1 at WM and maybe $1.25 at Target or the post office was $7 at Office Depot! I walked out without it. I run a small business. That would have blown the profit on the small item I was trying to ship to a customer. Its just the evolution of things and they are no longer needed or wanted
@5:04 I bought that exact same X-Acto pencil sharpener being sold for $36.69 from Amazon last year for about $25.
PRICE MATCH may be offered!
I'm a customer service manager at an Office Depot store in Utah. Ours is actually quite busy, but not all the stores in our district are quite so lucky. None of the store closures have hit us here in UT yet, but they're coming. There was a recent corporate and retail restructure that laid off a ton of people, and its not a great sign.
Its pretty weird spot we're in, honestly. Many customers come to our store looking for niche products that they can't easily buy elsewhere in person, things like rolodexs, printer stands, file cabinets, etc. Problem is, niche products dont sell much. So we don't carry them. We do still have some niche things, time clocks like what was shown in the video, as well as cash registers, but thats about it. We can order just about anything, often free next day shipping too, but why do that when you can get it from Amazon for often cheaper anyway?
The bulk of our customers are boomers who are allergic to the internet, so they dont want to order things in the first place. Everyone else are people looking to buy things they need that day and can't wait for an order to come in. Our store in particular is in a wealthier part of town, so we also get a lot of business people in buying supplies and not caring about the price cuz theyre all loaded. *shrug*
That said, I'd probably only give the retail half of the company about 5 years to live, but I could be wildly wrong about that.
In my hometown, we had an Office Max, Copy Max, and Furniture Max all combined. They were there for nearly 20 years, but they finally closed about two years ago. It ALWAYS looked like this location. No one was ever there, and like you said, their prices were ridiculous.
Here in the UK we have lost Staples which went into administration a few years ago, this was then replaced with office outlet which then recently also went into administration, now there isn't really any office chain stores around apart from private ones.
Shops are constantly closing including department stores but my local mall is still busy on a daily basis but not as busy as it was in the early 90s or 2000s obviously, but it is still getting a new food court and a cinema in the new extension which is costing over £60million ($77million) but this is slowly killing the highstreet around it. The mall is owned by the USA and Canadian company Invesco and Lend Lease, these have been amazing at keeping the mall nearly full, they have also updated all the interior in 2017, hopefully malls won't completely fade away as they are usually a heart of a city.
I am so thrilled that you uploaded this! I worked at an OfficeMax for basically all of my second half of high school. Worked there from May of 2014 to June of 2017. A ton of memories were made there. I saw three different waves of managers in my time there. I am very surprised to see that they still have isles with all that obsolete tech still for sale. I figured they would've made the landline phone section a lot smaller by this point.
I’ve heard a lot of businesses use their online catalog to order and get items delivered directly to them. Not sure if the items come directly from a nearby store or from a warehouse.
govt purchases are exclusively this way, to ensure each item is authorized first. very long ago they gave purchase cards to employees to buy whatever in a retail storefront but this has long passed.
Both.
Same thing that is happening to Fry's and you can even see it happening to Best Buy too. There's practically no one venturing into retail stores anymore. They all just sit at home where they have Wi-Fi, Netflix, and can shop online for the "best" prices, but don't actually realize that they are effectively killing brick and mortar retail chains. I just went into Fry's last night and bought a Blu-Ray movie. I don't care if it was $2 more than Amazon, I got it when I wanted it.