OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX), is an office supplies retailer founded in 1988 and headquartered in Naperville, Illinois. It is the third-largest office supplies retailer in the USA, behind Staples and Office Depot.

History

Kmart
On April 1, 1988, OfficeMax was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by Michael Feuer (who served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer) along with seven other associates. On July 5 of that year, OfficeMax opened its first retail store in Golden Gate Shopping Center in Mayfield Heights, Ohio (the location remains open today as store #1).

OfficeMax grew by acquisition, including its 1990 takeover of Office Square stores, previously owned by KMart, in exchange for a 22% equity stake. In 1991, Kmart increased its stake in OfficeMax to 92%. The company acquired BizMart, it's largest acquisition to date, in 1992.

Boise Cascade
The company was acquired by Boise Cascade in 2003, and has undergone numerous internal changes since then, including rebranding its copy and print centers from CopyMax to OfficeMax Print & Document Services. This change was primarily to prevent customers from getting the idea that it was only a copy service. In Q4 2006 the company rolled out a new branding for their printing and finishing service after finding that OfficeMax Print & Document Services was too sterile of a name. The current name for the printing department is OfficeMax ImPress.

The furniture section of the retail stores is often marketed separately as FurnitureMax, though officially only a few stores have true FurnitureMax sections, characterized by much larger selections than normal OfficeMaxes. OfficeMax has 867 retail stores in the USA (including Puerto Rico) and 43 locations in Mexico (through a joint venture), in addition to an on-line retailer in the USA (OfficeMax.com). In October 2004, Boise Cascade completed its sale of its paper, building products, and timberland assets. It then renamed itself OfficeMax.

Financial Rebound
In Q1 2006, OfficeMax closed 110 underperforming domestic stores, and is opening 70 new stores with the new award winning "Advantage" store layout. The "Advantage" store design is supposed to be more customer friendly and includes improvements in all major departments inside an OfficeMax store. The company plans to remodel most or all of its stores to the new Advantage layout.

In 2007, the average price per share of OfficeMax stock has risen to $50+.[citation needed]

Customer Incentive Programs

Ink Cartridge Recycling
OfficeMax originally offered only recycled paper in exchange for ink cartridges, at first limiting the cartridges to HP only, and 2 at a time, then later expanding it to HP, Lexmark, Dell, and Canon cartridges and 5 at a time. However, the customer was not required to purchase anything to redeem their cartridges. To help drive ink sales, customers today only have the option of recycling their cartridges for $3 each off of their purchase, up to 5. Inkjets recycling is limited to HP, Canon, Dell, Lexmark, or Brother cartridges. Toner cartridges can also be recycled.

OfficeMax, Ink...
Starting in 2005 and ending early 2006, OfficeMax tested a semi-automated ink refill station in their stores in the Chicago area. Customers could bring in old HP, Lexmark, Dell, Canon, or Compaq cartridges, and have them tested and refilled. The cost of the refilling ranges from $2 below a new cartridge up to 50% off.

As of July 2006, OfficeMax is now outfitting all of their high profit stores with the ink refill machines. Stores in the Houston districts were the first to receive the new machines.