The idea for Staples was created in 1985, while founder Thomas G. Stemberg was working on a proposal for a different business. He needed a ribbon for his printer, but was unable to obtain one because his local dealer was closed for the Independence Day holiday. A frustration with the reliance on small stores for critical supplies combined with Stemberg's background in the grocery business led to a vision for an office supply superstore. The first store was opened in Brighton, Massachusetts in 1986. The 500th store was opened in Vero Beach, Florida, in 1996.

On September 4, 1996, Staples and Office Depot announced plans to merge. The Federal Trade Commission decided that the superpower would unfairly increase office supply prices despite competition from OfficeMax, because OfficeMax did not have stores in many of the local markets that the merger would affect. Staples ultimately argued that chains such as Wal-Mart and Circuit City represented significant competition, but this argument did little to sway the FTC. Following the denial of the merger by the FTC, a rivalry has formed between the two companies.

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 the 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, its largest acquisition to date, in 1992. OW-Office Warehouse, a Virginia-based regional chain, was acquired in 1993. In 1995 OfficeMax was spun-off of Kmart and became a NYSE-(OMX)-publicly-traded corporation, based in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

For the next ten years OfficeMax and its rivals, STAPLES and Office Depot, continued to open new stores, saturating the market segment. OfficeMax developed regional delivery centers, and investing in its super-regional PowerMax distribution centers in Las Vegas, NV (North Las Vegas, NV), Hazleton, PA (Onida, PA), and Birmingham, AL (McCalla, AL). All the while OfficeMax had the worst money losing results of the three. In 2001-2003, OfficeMax began closing under-performing stores in some neighborhoods and in regions where it didn't have a strong presence. Staples and Office Depot considered merging, but that deal was called off. Of the three, it was OfficeMax that would be acquired; by Boise Cascade Office Products Corporation, which had a nationwide office supply delivery operation based in Itasca, IL. Boise had no bricks and mortar retail presence; their model used sales accounts people.

Boise Cascade, which bought OfficeMax in 2003, also owned the Cuban Electric Co. before it was seized by the Cuban government following the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to power. OfficeMax is the largest property claimant in Cuba.

Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) is a supplier of office products and services. The company's selection of brand name office supplies includes business machines, computers, computer software and office furniture, while its business services encompass copying, printing, document reproduction, mailing and shipping. An S&P 500 company, Office Depot generates revenues of over US $14 billion annually and has 42,000 employees worldwide. It is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.

Office Depot was founded in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida (near Fort Lauderdale) in 1986 by three partners: Pat Sher, Stephen Dougherty, and Jack Kopkin. Sher, the company's first CEO, died the next year from leukemia. Sher's estate donated the proceed of his life insurance policy to help the fledgling company meet its payroll. The company retained professional executive recruiters (so-called "headhunters") to find a replacement for Sher. David Fuente, formerly an executive with Sherwin-Williams, was selected as the new chairman and CEO.

Fuente immediately launched an aggressive nationwide expansion program. To finance it, he arranged for an initial public offering of stock in 1988. In 1991, Office Depot expanded to the West Coast region with the purchase of competitor Office Club. By 1993, it was operating over 350 stores in the U.S. and Canada. This acquisition moved Office Depot onto the national stage. Mark Begelman, founder and president of Office Club, joined Office Depot as president and chief operating officer.

Office Club stores were slated to continue operations under the Office Club brand and operate as a subsidiary of Office Depot. This was because Office Club operated under a "Membership format" (similar to what is currently employed by Costco and Sam's Club) and the company was at first reluctant to part with that. Within a year of the merger, Office Club stores dropped the membership format and became fully assimilated with Office Depot.