Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 8, 1994 TAG: 9406080092
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Staples Inc., which took over the former Office America site, actually began serving customers May 26, but its corporate offices say Monday was the first official day.
Earlier days were just chances to "let the registers get warmed up," said Lisa Clair from the company's Framingham, Mass., headquarters.
The air conditioning is wonderfully cool, however, and the place opens at 7 a.m., a good thing to keep in mind on these hot mornings.
The store, on Virginia 419 near Tanglewood Mall, is one of seven stores the company acquired from Office America of Richmond when it decided to quit business in March.
Clair said the location fit the company's market requirements, which include being near a shopping center, on a main traffic artery and with a fair number of small businesses in a five-mile radius.
With Office Max on the north side of Roanoke - at Towne Square shopping center - and Staples on the south, the only other major player in the office-warehouse field not in town is Office Depot.
These stores all look pretty alike though, and from the chart accompanying this column, it appears their prices aren't so different, either. These outlets are absolute snakepits, however, for shoppers who can't avoid buying note pads and colorful paper clips and one more pen.
That's apparently what Staples Chairman Thomas Stemberg hoped when he came up with the idea for the company in 1986. He now operates 253 stores.
Stemberg, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, also claims to have launched the first line of generic foods in the United States.
The local operation is run by Jeff Farley, who was manager at Office America. Farley has a staff of 32.
|n n| It's the bug season, and the battle has begun. Only this year it's not just people fighting insects. Avon Products Inc. and S.C. Johnson & Son are in court over Off!, Skintastic and Skin-So-Soft.
Avon claims that Johnson's ads for Off! are "false and misleading."
Avon's Skin-So-Soft has been perennially popular as an insect repellent for people and animals, although the fragrance takes some getting used to. New this month is Skin-So-Soft Moisturizing Suncare Plus. It has an SPF No.15 sunscreen and promises to be effective against mosquitoes, fleas and deer ticks.
The active ingredient for repellency is oil of citronella.
A 4-ounce tube sells for $9.99.
|n n| For many, many years there has been talk of the electronic grocery where we can sit at home and order up the week's food and just zip by a warehouse to pick up the bagged results. Winn-Dixie Stores is ready to go one step further in a venture in Orlando, Fla.
Beginning sometime later this year, shoppers will be able to order groceries and have them delivered.
According to Advertising Age Magazine, Winn-Dixie and Jack Eckerd Corp. will be part of ShopperVision, an interactive grocery and drugstore shopping offering by Time Warner's Full Service Network.
Users can select an item, read the ingredients information on the box and then pop it into an on-screen delivery cart.
Time Warner subscribers get ShopperVision free but have to pay $9.95 for delivery of each Winn-Dixie order. Eckerd orders will be delivered free. Purchases can be tacked onto the monthly cable bill or be paid for by credit card.
by CNB