Nothing Can Stop The Implosion Of Office Supply Chain Stores

[FarCenter]

These office retailers will all be destroyed unless they fundamentally change how they do business.

The biggest threat is the fact that workplaces are going digital, making the decline of the office supply industry a reality.


"All three companies [OfficeMax, Office Depot, and Staples] could soon face an even larger existential threat than Amazon," wrote Ryu Spaeth at The Week. "The rapid digitalization of a workforce that has grown less reliant on notepads, pens, and printers. And that may be a trend no merger can solve."

For instance, paper shipments have continued to plummet as offices go digital and become more efficient.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/death-of-office-supply-stores-2013-2

Nice graph of cut sheet paper shipments showing a drop from 5,200,000 tons in 2006 to 4,200,000 tons today.

Also a nice graph of drop in retail employment since 2001.

From music stores down 71% to office stores down 28%.

But those people have maybe gotten jobs in restaurants, bars and gyms....

[greytdemocrat]

1. Not buying it...

There will always be people who want paper stuff.

[Taverner]

2. Agreed, but there will be less...

Think buggy whip (usually the Conservative's favorite canard, but in this case - actually makes sense)

[greytdemocrat]

13. Tell that to my wife.

Please.

[FarCenter]

4. There are still people who want CDs and vinyl albums (reels, cassettes, 8-tracks - not so much)

But a lot of the remaining business is either on-line or in small business stores that also do a brisk business in second-hand and collectible goods.

So shops selling fine papers, pens, etc. will probably survive and also sell writing pads, binders, and manila folders for those who stil want them.

[snooper2]

7. And there will always be people who still need vacuum tubes

for their old ass amp they love...

Doesn't mean it will continue to be a multi-billion dollar industry

http://www.vacuumtubesinc.com/

[TwilightGardener]

3. Dunder Mifflin: Unlimited Paper In A Paperless World.

[FarCenter]

6. In Scranton, PA

http://www.dundermifflin.com/

[lastlib]

5. In 2007, my company's office campus was shredding 7 TONS of scrap paper per WEEK!

And ARCHIVING another fifteen tons!
by 2010, digitization had cut it to four tons archived, and >2 tons scrap. I would imagine it's been cut in half again since then.

[treestar]

8. Hopefully some employment is made up in the computer industry

Everything being computerized must mean more work there.

[FarCenter]

9. A Digital Shift on Health Data Swells Profits in an Industry

But today, as doctors and hospitals struggle to make new records systems work, the clear winners are big companies like Allscripts that lobbied for that legislation and pushed aside smaller competitors.

While proponents say new record-keeping technologies will one day reduce costs and improve care, profits and sales are soaring now across the records industry. At Allscripts, annual sales have more than doubled from $548 million in 2009 to an estimated $1.44 billion last year, partly reflecting daring acquisitions made on the bet that the legislation would be a boon for the industry. At the Cerner Corporation of Kansas City, Mo., sales rose 60 percent during that period. With money pouring in, top executives are enjoying Wall Street-style paydays.

None of that would have happened without the health records legislation that was included in the 2009 economic stimulus bill — and the lobbying that helped produce it. Along the way, the records industry made hundreds of thousands of dollars of political contributions to both Democrats and Republicans. In some cases, the ties went deeper. Glen E. Tullman, until recently the chief executive of Allscripts, was health technology adviser to the 2008 Obama campaign. As C.E.O. of Allscripts, he visited the White House no fewer than seven times after President Obama took office in 2009, according to White House records.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/business/a-digital-shift-on-health-data-swells-profits.html

The health records software business seems to be healthy!

[treestar]

12. Makes sense. They should not have even needed legislation

in the stimulus bill promoting them! But at least that kept it here rather than India/China. That's another issue - the new jobs created don't necessarily stay in the US.

[jmowreader]

10. This is from the same site that predicted the end of big box retail a few days ago

Not buying this one either...first, even if the office goes completely paperless, which won't happen, you still have the need for office stuff and you have to get it somewhere.

[Initech]

11. Paper shipments decline? Ha they should see where I work.

We go through four boxes of 11x17 and 8.5" paper a week and large format - at least two spindles a day. Perhaps they need to find new customers.