Seventeen years ago, Staples, Inc., the worldwide office supplies and equipment chain, began its West Coast expansion by building stores in the city of Los Angeles, CA. By 1997 the company was sufficiently established that it bought the naming rights for the Staples Center, Los Angeles' premier sports and entertainment complex.
Staples, Inc. is the globe's biggest office supplies and equipment retail store chain, with more than 1,900 stores worldwide, including locations in the U.S., Canada, Belgium, England, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. A catalog business serves customers in Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Denmark, Austria and Italy. The company, which started out in Massachusetts, sells items like office machines, furniture, technology and business services. Staples-dot-com is its online Web site.
Offering an extensive number of services to its customers, Staples has copy and print centers for things like faxing, business cards and custom stamps. Stores also feature UPS pickup and delivery during business hours. The copy center is virtually a store inside a store, especially since most of them are in a separate section from the rest of the host store.
Certain stores tout Staples EasyTech, an in-store and on-site service for computer repair, upgrades, as well as home and office networking setup.
Because of industry competition, Staples has been testing a program named 'Heavy Up,' mainly using stores in New York State, since 2005, to experiment with expanding the services offered by the Tech Center. Another test, called 'Double Up' began running early in 2006 in unspecified markets. This is all being done to gain an advantage on competing services like Best Buy's Geek Squad and Circuit City's Firedog.
In 2006, Staples also launched the 'Easy Resident Tech' program, which utilized one or two repair technicians to do in-store computer repairs in business hours. On-site work, though, is available when desired.
Beginning in Fall 2007, the company launched a 'Security by Staples' initiative, which attempts to inform customers how to avoid identity theft, data loss, and other similar Internet threats. It also offers a wide variety of products and services to keep customers' identities, as well as personal and business data, safeguarded from common security threats.
Matt Paolini is a business writer for CityBook.com, the family-safe Los Angeles Yellow Pages, which carries an extensive directory on Los Angeles furniture and equipment.
