Office Depot -- more than office supplies

Business Today

POPLAR BLUFF -- When you have hundreds of different items to sell, sometimes it's hard to get the word out.

"People know we carry office supplies," said Office Depot manager Ryan Doyel. "But I don't think they are aware of everything we carry. We have digital cameras, home networking, home computers, photo printers, furniture and lots of school supplies."

Aisle 12 at the store features dozens of school items, such as spiral notebooks, binders, teacher's aids, and even bulletin board trimmers.

In January, Doyel added a scrapbook, photo album section on Aisle 14 where customers have a large selection of albums and scrapbooks and accessories such as album covers, markers, stencils, stickers, color pencils and decorative scissors.

Office Depot opened in Poplar Bluff in December 2000 behind Ruby Tuesday's off Westwood Boulevard.

Founded in 1986 and with over 1,000 stores in 10 countries, Office Depot is the world's largest seller of office products. There are 827 Office Depots in 44 states.

The stores are noted for high shelved aisles loaded with supplies that make selecting products easy.

Office Depots have three major departments -- furniture, technology and supplies.

The technology department is a big hit locally.

"Our hot ticket has been digital cameras and photo printers," Doyel said. "They've been hot the last six months."

The store carries 14 types of Cannon, Olympus and Hewlet Packard digital cameras that range in price from $100 to $400.

There are three types of Hewlet-Packard photo printers that range in price from $150 to $300.

Office Depot employs 19 people.