Article

Top 100: 61. Office Max

April 5, 2011

Office Max has been struggling to compete with online retailers such as Amazon and big box stores such as Staples, but saw third-quarter profits more than triple. While sales of less-profitable big-ticket items such as furniture and computers are still down, demand for its more profitable paper and office supply products increased. The No. 3 U.S. office supplies retailer lowered buying costs by centralizing its pricing team and giving it greater tools to analyze contracts. To bolster demand during the back-to-school selling period, the company abandoned its past practice of “front-loading” campaigns and instead staggered its advertising around times when customers would be shopping in the stores.

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