| Paper clips, manilla envelopes, sticky notes, pencils and | | | | genuine dilemma: you have to have plenty of supplies |
| pens -- no matter how highly technological the modern | | | | on hand, but you can't bankrupt the company just to |
| office may become, old fashioned office products | | | | ensure you'll never run out. That's why, among all retail |
| remain an unchanging fact of working life. Among the | | | | categories, there's probably no area where keeping |
| most in demand items sold at retail and as bulk | | | | prices reasonable -- or, let's say "dirt cheap" -- are of |
| discounts deals, cheap office supplies are not the kind | | | | the greatest importance both to suppliers and retailers. |
| of items that provoke many daydreams. Nevertheless, | | | | That's why there really isn't much of a market for high |
| they do fill an unusual niche in the modern imagination. In | | | | end paper clips, elegant pencils, beautifully designed |
| our post-modern world, so far removed from our | | | | stainless steel scissors, or monogrammed file folders. |
| hunter-gatherer roots, we cannot live without them. | | | | Neiman-Marcus doesn't stock a whole lot of office |
| The cult comedy hit, "Office Space," turned a red | | | | supplies. |
| stapler and dysfunctional copiers into totems of | | | | It's the art and the science of the office manager, and |
| contemporary life; innumerable scenes in the American | | | | the home-bound freelancer, to manage just when and |
| and British versions of "The Office" demonstrate how | | | | what quantities of office supplies to purchase. Get too |
| the most ordinary office supplies can achieve a | | | | many, and you're stumbling over boxes of envelopes |
| significance far beyond what most of us would | | | | and stapes at every turn -- and possibly wasting |
| imagine. Probably the most commonly stolen items | | | | money and/or harming your office-wide reputation for |
| next to hotel towels and bars of soap, office supplies | | | | thrift. Don't get enough and you put the operations of |
| hold an intriguing place in modern mythology because, | | | | your office at risk and create potentially enormous |
| as common and humdrum as they might seem, most | | | | anger among your coworkers. There's a reason why |
| of us cannot really work without them. | | | | office managers are often either the most popular or |
| You don't miss your water until the well runs dry and | | | | unpopular people at many a corporate center. |
| you don't think about cushioned mailers, spiral binders, | | | | Fortunately, it is a balance that, with a bit of effort, |
| or name tag holders until you actually need them and | | | | knowledge and foresight, competent workers can |
| can't find them. And that's when they become, just for | | | | usually manage. It's just a matter of knowing where to |
| a moment, the most important items in the world. | | | | purchase high quality cheap office supplies, when and |
| Office managers the world over are only too aware | | | | in how much bulk. Deals and discounts are a huge part |
| of this reality, because the moment that last package | | | | of it -- but managing just how much room you have to |
| of sticky notes is opened and and office-wide | | | | store those inexpensively purchased products is |
| shortage threatens memories and communications, | | | | another part of the science of managing a business of |
| they are the ones who get the blame. | | | | any size. Office supplies aren't something that most |
| At the exact same time, the company's fiscal | | | | people get excited about, but that's kind of the point. If |
| powers-that-be don't want to spend excessive | | | | you're thinking too much about them, something is |
| amounts of cash purchasing and storing paper clips, | | | | obviously wrong. |
| three-ring binders, file folders, and correction fluid. It's a | | | | |