| I came up with the name " Staples" driving from | | | | them well and arming them with the tools they need is |
| Hartford2 to Boston one day. The name at the time | | | | a huge part of what we do. It's wonderfully rewarding |
| was going to be "8 and a half by 11" but that just didn't | | | | to walk into a store 3,000 miles away from home, |
| sound very good. I found myself thinking about clips | | | | unannounced, and have a terrific shopping experience. |
| and pens and pads and things, when suddenly I | | | | It makes me proud. In order to attract the best |
| thought, "Staples! That's got a nice ring." It stuck. We | | | | associates you need an attractive set of rewards. We |
| opened the first store on May 1, 1986. It started the | | | | made broad employee ownership one of our early |
| office superstore industry. I knew firsthand how | | | | goals. Through our employee stock purchase plan, |
| expensive and difficult it was to get the basic | | | | options plans, and 401K plans, our employees can |
| ingredients3 to run your office. You had to run to one | | | | participate in our success. From a benefits perspective, |
| store to get computer products, a second to get | | | | we want to take care of their basic needs so they |
| business machines, a third to get office supplies, a | | | | could focus on the right things - their career path, their |
| fourth to get janitorial supplies, and a fifth to get your | | | | fit with the company, their providing value for |
| printing and copying done. You paid high prices for all | | | | customers. When you look at the overall value you get |
| of it and the store hours were not convenient. We had | | | | by offering quality health care coverage at an |
| spoken with many small businesses and were | | | | affordable price, over the long term you end up doing |
| convinced that once they understood exactly how | | | | the right thing for your shareholders. Staples and Blue |
| much they were paying for office products and how | | | | Cross Blue Shield9 are similar in that folks are |
| they were getting ripped off they would flock5 to our | | | | responsive to your problems and will get back to you |
| store. We had a lot of competitors around the world in | | | | and solve them. Blue Cross makes it easier when you |
| the early days, many of which have fallen by the | | | | go to the doctor just like Staples makes it easier to |
| wayside. Today we have successful stores in every ', | | | | buy office products. We even have the Staples |
| corner of the United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, and | | | | Business Rewards Card, which provides our |
| even Portugal. We never dreamed we'd be this | | | | customers with a number of benefits as a "thank you" |
| successful and impacting this many small businesses' | | | | for their business. This card has some of the same |
| lives. Saving the customer money has been part of | | | | connotations10 as the Blue Cross Blue Shield card. |
| the Staples philosophy from the J get-go6. However, it | | | | Each of these cards is a staple11 of doing business. In |
| doesn't make any difference how good our price on | | | | both cases, you can be assured of getting the proper |
| file ! folders is. If we're out of stock7 on your file folder | | | | attention, the proper value, and being taken care of the |
| and you have to take the 1 time to go somewhere | | | | way you'd like to be taken care of. The problems of |
| else, we haven't saved you any money at all. So it'snot | | | | the entrepreneur are similar around the world but they |
| just saving money; its about convenience. That is our | | | | have never gotten the respect they deserve. I'm just |
| philosophy. It's ourjob to make it easier to do what's | | | | glad that companies like Staples and Blue Cross are |
| most important, which is to run your enter prise, | | | | paying that kind of respect to the small |
| whatever the enterprise is. What makes the Staples | | | | businessperson. One of my great memories of Blue |
| experience different in the customer's mind is our | | | | Cross Blue Shield is from when my mom lived in |
| 55,000 associates. The customer experiences how | | | | Austria. She hadn't been back to the states in many |
| well our front-line associates deal with solving their | | | | years and one time while I was visiting I went through |
| business problems. 8 That's why it's terribly important | | | | her budget and saw that she still was paying for Blue |
| to hire people who care about other people. Training | | | | Cross Blue Shield. |