Buy Local – It’s not just a slogan

July 28, 2010

First Class School & Office Supplies General Posts , , Leave a comment

As a local, family-owned and operated office supply company located in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, we often battle misconceptions when compared to “Big Box” national chain stores.  As a result of the millions of dollars these corporate giants spend on advertising, companies like ours are often perceived as having higher prices, less expertise, and limited product selection.  These perceptions couldn’t be further from the truth.

The fact-of-the-matter is, if you were to ask our many satisfied customers, they’d tell you that they choose to do business with us because we deliver the best of both worlds – product selection and pricing equivalent to or better than the national chains combined with a superior level of personalized customer service.

Most importantly, the entire local economy benefits when local businesses support each other.  Numerous studies have shown that dollars spent with locally owned companies are reinvested back into the community several times over whereas money spent with national chains tends to be invested elsewhere.  Did you know that “locally-owned businesses generate as much as two- to three- times the local economic activity as do chains” (via Thinking Outside The Box).  Also, for every $100 dollars spent at a local business, as much as $68 stays in the local economy, compared to $43 when the same amount is spent at a chain store (via Andersonville Study of Retail Economics)

Here are some more examples of why it makes sense to buy locally:

  • Local businesses support local realtors, accountants, attorneys, architects, merchants, developers, financial institutions, insurance firms, restaurants, schools and other community resources
  • Local businesses pay more taxes and rarely receive preferential tax breaks or subsidies
  • Local businesses provide employment for your family, friends and neighbors
  • Local businesses make up the distinctive personality of the community
  • Local businesses sustain a healthy and vibrant main street USA
  • Local businesses support local charities

This doesn’t just apply to the office supply industry, it applies to many of the “small” community businesses – banks, electronics stores, furniture stores, grocery stores, drug stores, hardware stores, gift shops, the list goes on…

I’m not just saying to buy local either – we practice what we preach here.  It’s not any kind of company policy or anything formal like that, it just happens to be that the people we do business with are local.  Our accountant, lawyer, photographer, bank, printer, web designer, web hosting company…are all local businesses, may of which are a husband and wife team, that we have used for many years.  If I have questions, or need something in a hurry, I never get caught in an off-shore phone tree. When I call them, the phone rings, and a person answers the phone.  I KNOW!  Shocking, right?  If I leave a message, someone calls me back – usually the same day.

It’s so frustrating to know that you have something great to offer people, but the perception gets in the way.

…………………………We interrupt this blog post for a mini-rant…………………………

Ok, so you want to know what really gets me?  I’ll tell you (if you don’t what to know, scroll down)…I try to attend local networking events on a pretty regular basis.  It’s a great way to learn about the businesses in the community.  Usually when I first meet someone at one of these events, the question comes up “So…what do you do?”.  Of course, I tell them what I do and a little bit about the company…ask them who they are currently using for their office product needs, and the answer is ALWAYS the same…<<insert nation big-box chain name here>>>.  Every.  Single.  Time.  Do you want to know what the kicker is?  9 times out of 10, the person I’m talking to is from a local business, with great products and even better customer service, competing with the big guys and looking to make connections in-order to grow their business.

Why is that?  I’ll tell you why – because they didn’t know they had a choice.  Well, I’m here to tell you, you have more choices than you know – it just takes a little digging sometimes to find them, but I can assure you, it’s time well spent.

…………….We now return you to our regularly scheduled blog post………………….

Let’s start changing our perception.  Let’s support each other by keeping it local.

If you’re in the same boat we are, butting heads with the ‘big box’ stores when you meet with potential customers or clients, what do you do or say to change “the perception”?  Leave us your thoughts, stories, suggestions, or complaints (or should I say, “rant”).

Dear Customer:

August 24, 2009

First Class School & Office Supplies General Posts , , , , , Leave a comment

2009 School Kit DistributionLast week was a very long week.  It was the week that we spend all year planning for:  School Supply Kit Delivery and Distribution Week.  Although we’ve been doing this for 9 years and have it down to a science, in my mind, it’s still chaotic and stressful.  I have this thing that I need to make sure that everyone is completely satisfied with our service and product (I know, it’s weird, but I happen to care about our customer’s experience *sarcasm*).

Every year, there is always at least one poor parent who comes in to pick up their child’s school supply kit and there isn’t one there for them.  The whole summer, they thought they were all set for the first day of school.  Now, I have to be the one to tell them that we did not receive an order from them.  I give them my business card and tell them to go back to their checkbook and look for a payment made to the school’s parent organization that cleared the bank back in the spring.  So, they go home, look in their checkbook, and call me back.  This is usually how the conversation goes: “I could have sworn I ordered a kit but I can’t find a check.  Is there any way I can still order a kit from you?”.  Again, I have to be the bearer of bad news.  Because we order our inventory based on the pre-orders we receive in the spring, our inventory is very tight and by the time we fill all of the pre-orders, many of the items that go into the kits are out-of-stock.  So….as much as I try to help them out, most of the time I have to tell them our situation and that we can’t help them.  I feel horrible.  It’s less than a week before school starts; the parent thought they had everything taken care of, and now they have to go out and try to find the supplies they need at the stores which are already picked over.  This is the reason I started this business – to avoid this exact situation.

I must say, I am so blessed to have awesome customers.  Even though I have sent them out into the madness of last-minute school supply shopping, they are still gracious and kind.  Most of them thank me for trying to help them and tell me that they will look for our order forms to come home next year.  And that’s just the handful of parents who didn’t buy our kits.  I had so many parents tell me that they don’t know what they would do without our service.  They love our school supply kits and they tell their friends about them and encourage them to buy them.  I can’t tell you how much it means to me to hear comments like that.

When I started this business back in 2000, I had a daughter in 1st grade and a 5-month old son.  The last thing I wanted to do was load up the kids in the van and go fight the crowds at the ‘big box’ stores.  My daughter’s school didn’t offer the option of pre-purchasing school supplies for the following school year like they had done the year before because they had some unresolved issues with the company that they had used.  So, instead of doing what most people would do and hit the stores, I hit the phones.  I started calling companies like Crayola®, and Elmer’s®, to find out what I needed to do to get an account with them and start buying in bulk.  I decided that I would offer the same type of product but make sure that I provided a great customer experience to go along with it.  I hope that I have done that.

Now that all of the deliveries have been made, I begin to look forward to next year (yes, already.).  I had some great suggestions from parents on how to improve on our service and that is what I plan to do.  I have many ideas swirling around in my head – now I just need figure out the best way to make them happen.  The top priority for next year, is to find a way to accommodate parents, who, at the last minute, would rather purchase a school supply kit than run around to 10 different stores to get their supply shopping done.

If you have used our service in the past and have any suggestions for us, please share them.  We appreciate feedback.  It’s the only way we know if we’re doing the best job we can to provide a great service for our customers.  And, because you have a direct line to the owner of the company – your comments will be heard!

Thanks to everyone (teachers, principals, parents, students, janitors…) for another great Back-to-School season.  You guys are the best and we are truly grateful to have the best customers a company could ever ask for.  We know that, without you, there would be no us.

Now go and have a fantastic school year!

What’s in a Name? Apparently, Everything.

June 15, 2009

First Class School & Office Supplies General Posts , , , Leave a comment

First, a little background on our name:  When I founded the company back in 2000, the name of the company was chosen based on the fact that we created school supply kits for school age children so that they would be prepared for the ‘first class’ of the new school year.  I also wanted to convey the fact that the supplies in our kits were of high quality.  Thus, First Class School Supplies, Inc. was the name I settled on. (Get it, ‘First Class’ double meaning – yeah).

Okay, fast-forward 9 years to January of this year.  We made a decision to broaden our scope and offer a full-line of office and educational products in an effort to serve more of our community.  Now that we were adding office supplies into the mix, First Class School Supplies seemed to be missing something, namely, the office supplies.  We had some brand-recognition within the community so we didn’t want to change the name too much.  So, even though it lengthened an already long name, we became First Class School and Office Supplies.

Now, here is the problem, social media.  As we attempt to connect with as many customers and potential customers as we can through the various social media outlets, each of those outlets requires a user name.  Everything I read says that you should select a name that you can use on every social media site you participate in so that people can easily find you.  Sounds logical enough, right?  Then there is Google™ and SEO.  Your web presence needs to be able to be found easily and often by Google™.  Well, we are all over the board and anything but consistant.

@officeproducts

@officeproducts

1stOfficeSupplies

1stOfficeSupplies

companies.to/officesupplies

companies.to/officesupplies

OfficeSupplies

OfficeSupplies

1stOfficeSupplies

1stOfficeSupplies

The one last constraint, sites like Twitter restrict the length of your user name to 15 characters or less (1stofficesupplies = 17 characters).

I would like to choose one User ID and stick with it and would like your input.  We thought about FCSOS, the only thing is, it could stand for anything.  Would that be okay, or confusing?  If you were looking for First Class School and Office Supplies on a social network, what would be the first thing you would search for?  Please leave your suggestions below.  If you are the first one to come up with the ‘winning’ User ID, there’s a prize in it for you! (I’m not sure what it will be yet, but I’m quite sure it will have something to do with office supplies ! winking smiley )

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