The idea behind Staples started with a broken printer ribbon in America just under 20 years ago. Former supermarket chain executive turned entrepreneur, Tom Stemberg, was working on a new business venture when his printer ribbon broke. It was Fourth of July weekend, 1985, and his local stationer was closed. Stemberg went to a local wholesale retailer but the store didn’t have the correct ribbon and had very limited stock - only 100 or so different office supply products. Tom thought of an idea - a superstore for office supplies where small businesses and consumers can obtain the products they need at the same discount prices that were only usually available to large corporations purchasing in large quantities.

Tom Stemberg

On May 1st, 1986, Staples opened in Brighton, Mass. and changed the way people thought about and purchased office supplies.

Today, Staples employs over 60,000 people worldwide, the company is committed to making it easy to buy a wide range of products, including stationery supplies, technology, furniture, and business services accessible by a broad range of customers from small businesses to schools, teachers and parents.

Headquartered outside of Boston, Staples operates approximately 1,600 office superstores worldwide and also serves its customers through mail order catalogue, e-commerce and contract businesses.

What’s On Offer?
Today, Staples in the UK has over 97 store locations nationwide and prides itself on offering a broad range of products to suit a wide range of customers.

Staples is a one-stop shop packed full of essentials for small businesses, schools and colleges. For teachers and students its vast product range means you are guaranteed to make the start to your new term a well organised one!

With over 7,000 product lines available in store, Staples has everything students and teachers will need for the new academic year, including diaries, notebooks, paper, ink cartridges, recordable and re-writable CD-Roms, ringbinder and lever arch folders, dictionaries, pens, arts & crafts, calculators, laptops, printers, PC peripherals and much much more.

Staples clearly understands the ever changing needs of parents, students and teachers, and offers the reassurance of being the UK’s leading office supplies retailer, offering shoppers the flexibility of having access to over 7,000 different products at its stores across the UK, as well as Staples delivery catalogue.

Each year Staples runs exclusive discounts for teachers, in order that they can stock up on the back to school and college basics required for each new term. All year round Staples are dedicated to providing great product ideas to suit a variety of needs including stationery, storage, office furniture and technology solutions.

Open seven days a week, Staples’ helpful staff are always on hand to offer expert advice. Each store operates very much as part of the local community where it attracts both its customers and its workforce, forging links with educational and business establishments alike.