Most of the documents we send these days are digital, but when it comes to attaching the physical ones together, there’s nothing quite as helpful — and satisfyingly clicky — as a good old-fashioned stapler. The New York Times has whipped up a little ode to the device, in appreciation. And the key to staplers’ survival might lay in eye-catching design.
From the Times:
Time is a big threat to the stapler industry, and to office products in general. More people who grew up with staplers are going to retire and die. And the younger generation just isn’t as attached to staplers, said Lora Morsovillo, president of office supplies for NPD.
But there’s hope, she said, if stapler makers look at their products as decorative objects. “The growth is coming from uniqueness and personalisation”, especially in home offices, she said. She puts staplers in the same general category as tape dispensers, and, she noted, there’s a tape dispenser out there in the shape of a stiletto heel.
We’re all looking for ways to make our desks a little more pretty to distract from the monotony of work, so maybe, just maybe, the clickety-clackety device can survive that way.
You can read more about the little guys’ past — and future — over at the New York Times. And hopefully devices that put a finishing touch on a project when you giving them a decisive slam will never totally fade from the world. [The New York Times]