American Success Story: Office Max

A very popular resource for purchasing office suppliesdesigned for use in American retailing to provide
such as computers, furniture, hardware and softwarereal-time, integrated information throughout their
in addition to copy and print services and much, muchorganization. Also during 2000, OfficeMax combined
more is a store you've undoubtedly heard of calledeCommerce business, catalog operations and its
OfficeMax. OfficeMax came onto the retail scene incommercial sales groups into what they now call their
1988 and has since grown from a single outlet to oneDirect Business Unit.
largest office products superstore chains in theOfficeMax also gives back to the communities that
country.helped them achieve their success. In 2000, The
OfficeMax actually materialized into the largestOfficeMax Charitable Foundation was established to
American office products superstore in operation indonate more than $300,000 for worthwhile causes.
terms of the number of stores they opened and theirOne foundation the company sponsored was a
vast geographical coverage. In January 1997,National Kids N Need Resource Center Cleveland,
OfficeMax set a national record by exceeding $3 billionOhio which was the first of its kind.
in sales making them the fourth company in UnitedThrough its partnerships with companies like Hewlett
States history ever to achieve that amount ofPackard and introductions of its FurnitureMax,
success in less than nine years.CopyMax and TechMax ventures, OfficeMax
It all began on April 1, 1988 in Cleveland, Ohio whenprovides the public with complete, state-of-the-art
OfficeMax was founded by Michael Feuer, itsservices through all of its associations with a supply
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, along withchain network and high-tech computer system.
seven other of the company's associates. The firstPresently, you can find an OfficeMax store just about
store opened its doors to the public in Cleveland onanywhere you travel in the United States. They have
July 5th of the same year and by the end of that year,over 900 convenient locations throughout America
there were a total of three stores in the suburbanwhich include operations in Puerto Rico and the Virgin
Cleveland area.Islands. In 1996, they opened their first international store
The year 2000 was huge for OfficeMax becausein Mexico and by the year 2000, a total of 27
during that time, the company implemented theirOfficeMax (OfficeMax de Mexico) stores were open
Enterprise Resource Planning software which is thefor business there.
largest program of this type. The software was