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Minority Market Shares

Edgy DC Feb 17 2011 11:45 AM

I'm on my way to a conference. To set up my booth, my checklist says to bring "three (3) staplers." I dug through cabinets and drawers and finally came up with the third --- a Sparco™ brand stapler. A two-tone baby with sharp sleek lines of the sixties. Like something you'd see one the desk of Larry Tate or Darren Stevens. Sparco? If you asked for an opinion from my lifetime of stapling experience, I'd tell you that Boston has a 45% market share of staplers, Swingline has another 45%, a dozen companies fight over the remaining 10% and it's been that way since the crash of '29. But Sparco? How long have you been in the cuthroat world of the stapler game?

Benjamin Grimm Feb 17 2011 11:46 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

Is it this company? http://www.sparcousa.com/

soupcan Feb 17 2011 01:22 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

I've got 2 of these bad boys on my desk. The ACE Fastner Co. 'Pilot' model. They've been making staplers since at least the '20s. My 2 are early '60s vintage and they beat the hell out of anything you can buy today.

Edgy DC Feb 17 2011 01:25 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

Swingline was up at 70% in the mid-2000s. What a monster!

DocTee Feb 17 2011 01:56 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

I'm using the PaperPro, by Prodigy. Boston? Haven't seen that in years. Thought Swingline was the only game in town.

Edgy DC Feb 17 2011 02:09 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

Aquired by Stanley in 1986.

metsguyinmichigan Feb 17 2011 02:11 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

I have an old, black Bostitch on my desk.

batmagadanleadoff Feb 17 2011 02:12 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

DocTee wrote: I'm using the PaperPro, by Prodigy. Boston? Haven't seen that in years. Thought Swingline was the only game in town. I'm a PaperPro convert. I first used one at my friend's office about 1 1/2 or 2 years ago. My initial impression, after merely holding the stapler in my hand, was that it was a flimsy, crappy plastic stapler. It turned out to be the best stapler I ever used. Newfangled technology that staples effortlessly -- you don't feel that "click" anymore -- it's like pushing air.

Ceetar Feb 17 2011 02:14 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

my stapler has dust on it. It landed on my desk when i first started the job. it moved with me to the new office building. it's collected dust for the last four months and I don't think I've used it once. not sure it even has staples in it. checking...it's a swingline. black. *blinks* I apparently have two. why do I have two?

seawolf17 Feb 17 2011 02:15 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

Bates here. I had a great old stapler that I brought with me from an old temp job, but it finally busted last year. This new one gets the job done, though.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 17 2011 02:28 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

The stapleron my desk here at home is Boston, wonder though if it's the same as Bostitch. Boston isn't made in Boston but in Statesville, N.C. by the Hunt Co. Swinglines used to be made in Long Island City, just a couple blocks from our old place. Now they've gone China, wtf is the world coming to.

TransMonk Feb 17 2011 02:31 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

I've got an ACCO 50 that is two-tone brown. It's been around for at least 30 years and on my desk for the past two. It staples, which is all I can ask for.

Chad Ochoseis Feb 17 2011 02:40 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

A Bates 9000 that I don't think I've used in five years. I have about as much use for a stapler as I have for an answering machine. My work life revolves around Excel spreadsheets and scanned PDFs. However, I do have an old school Rolodex on my desk. And an abacus.

metsmarathon Feb 17 2011 02:49 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

hrm... i guess i don't have a stapler anymore. what the hell?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 17 2011 02:50 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

Edgy DC wrote: Aquired by Stanley in 1986. OK, so I guess my Boston stapler pre-dates 1986? I mean, I wouldn't doubt it does. I'm having trouble location the Hunt Mfg. Co., Statesville, NC on google.

HahnSolo Feb 17 2011 02:50 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

I'm wondering what kind of rockin' conference this is that Edgy needs 3(!) staplers for his booth.

Edgy DC Feb 17 2011 03:04 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

metsguyinmichigan wrote: I have an old, black Bostitch on my desk. That sounds like slang for some'n '.

Edgy DC Feb 17 2011 03:05 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

Edgy DC wrote: metsguyinmichigan wrote: I have an old, black Bostitch on my desk. That sounds like slang for some'n '. HahnSolo wrote: I'm wondering what kind of rockin' conference this is that Edgy needs 3(!) staplers for his booth. I run the bookstore.

Willets Point Feb 17 2011 03:20 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

At my office they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire.

sharpie Feb 17 2011 03:52 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

I've got a plasticky Bostitch at work (I do admit it works pretty well) but I have a metal monsta Swingline at home and that's the one that has my heart.

Fman99 Feb 17 2011 07:52 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

While you all were discussing staplers I went to all of your houses and had intercourse with all of your wives and NONE OF YOU NOTICED.

DocTee Feb 17 2011 08:06 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

Neither did our wives.

Ashie62 Feb 17 2011 08:13 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

Willets Point wrote: At my office they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire. Enjoying your time at Innotech?

metsmarathon Feb 17 2011 08:19 PM Re: Minority Market Shares

DocTee wrote: Neither did our wives. bam!

soupcan Feb 18 2011 07:49 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

Fman99 wrote: While you all were discussing staplers I went to all of your houses and had intercourse with all of your wives and NONE OF YOU NOTICED. This is a 20+ post thread on staplers. We probably deserved that.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 18 2011 07:55 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

I'm at the office today and have a Swingline here, the stamp on the bottom indicates it was built by real 'mericans in Long Island City. In fact U.S.A. is embossed on the base.

Edgy DC Feb 18 2011 08:17 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

soupcan wrote: Fman99 wrote: While you all were discussing staplers I went to all of your houses and had intercourse with all of your wives and NONE OF YOU NOTICED. This is a 20+ post thread on staplers. We probably deserved that. Well, what really has me curious is those bold companies that try and carve out a meaningful share of a marketplace --- not just staplers --- dominated forever by one or two beasts.

HahnSolo Feb 18 2011 08:57 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

Is RC Cola still around?

Ceetar Feb 18 2011 08:59 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

HahnSolo wrote: Is RC Cola still around? Yes. If anything it's less prevelent though.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Feb 18 2011 09:29 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

HahnSolo wrote: Is RC Cola still around? ' That's the first thing I thought when I saw the thread title yesterday. I remember really liking RC as a kid... although it's been long enough since I've had it that I forget whether it was entirely-- or even mostly-- a taste thing. Could be it was a root-for-the-underdog-with-my-treat-allowance-money thing.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 18 2011 10:26 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

RC Cola is still out there, they've really uglifed the logo to make it look "Edgy." C&C Cola used to take shots at the brand leaders "honk-honk" and "beep-beep"

Gwreck Feb 18 2011 10:29 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

I have a Quill 7-960 that I am a big fan of.

Edgy DC Feb 18 2011 10:40 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

Old RC cola logo featured the manly yet tender R gently spooning his beloved C. The new one is all like, "Honey, stop, I'm sleeping."

batmagadanleadoff Feb 18 2011 10:43 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

What's the best stapler to use to staple a bottle of RC Cola to Jeff Wilpon's head?

Willets Point Feb 18 2011 10:46 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: RC Cola is still out there, they've really uglifed the logo to make it look "Edgy." Are you calling Edgy ugly?

TransMonk Feb 18 2011 10:47 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

Edgy DC wrote: Old RC cola logo featured the manly yet tender R gently spooning his beloved C. The new one is all like, "Honey, stop, I'm sleeping." I know we don't do this anymore...but this post is definitely a bullet of cool!

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Feb 18 2011 10:48 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

That second one seems a little... coked-up, no?

TransMonk Feb 22 2011 07:21 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

From Metsbog:

Edgy DC Feb 22 2011 07:34 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

The word “ketchup” comes from the Chinese “ke-tsiap”, which simply means 'sauce. It seems those guys get credit for a lot of our foods. Ketsiap has been around in China since the 1690s. In my childhood, DelMonte was seemingly number two, but I imagine spelling it "catsup" severely marginalized them. The image I posted in the other thread suggested they were going for the latino niche, which I suppose is growing more rapidly than the swinging bachelor niche.

Edgy DC Feb 22 2011 07:39 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

Some other outliers fighting for thier piece of that 18%. (I imagine they're defunct.) I don't see Heinz under threat here.

Benjamin Grimm Feb 22 2011 07:40 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

I suddenly have a craving for pineapples and vinegar.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 22 2011 08:03 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

Wifey is on a strong anti-high-fructose-corn-syrup kick and has responded positively to Hunt's declaration on labels that it's HIGH-FRUCTOSE_CORN_SYPUP FREE!!!! Neither of us eat enough ketchup to make much of a difference although Lunchpail digs it. Catsup is an unacceptable spelling. I think Heinz has always had great-looking packaging and bottle shapes, very strong branding messages -- that as much as anything prolly explains their dominance.

Edgy DC Feb 22 2011 08:09 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

Malcolm Gladwell on why Heinz has a lock. A typical five-year-old consumes about sixty per cent more ketchup than a typical forty-year-old, and the company realized that it needed to put ketchup in a bottle that a toddler could control. There is another lesson in that household scene, though. Small children tend to be neophobic: once they hit two or three, they shrink from new tastes. That makes sense, evolutionarily, because through much of human history that is the age at which children would have first begun to gather and forage for themselves, and those who strayed from what was known and trusted would never have survived. There the three-year-old was, confronted with something strange on his plate—tuna fish, perhaps, or Brussels sprouts—and he wanted to alter his food in some way that made the unfamiliar familiar. He wanted to subdue the contents of his plate. And so he turned to ketchup, because, alone among the condiments on the table, ketchup could deliver sweet and sour and salty and bitter and umami, all at once.

Fman99 Feb 22 2011 09:42 AM Re: Minority Market Shares

Edgy DC wrote: The image I posted in the other thread suggested they were going for the latino niche, which I suppose is growing more rapidly than the swinging bachelor niche. I'd like to Del Mount-y that. Get all up in her ketchup hole.