At Granite Office Supplies we like to think we have a business model that works well for our customers. Occasionally, we receive feedback that verifies this and we would like to share it with everyone. This email comes from Julie and was sent to Robin (our customer service manager) and Julie says everything better than I can so here it is:

“You know, I recently had one of your competitors come to me and ask if
they can give me prices and possibly win my business. I said yes because
I knew they couldn’t do it. They sent me an email with their “best
prices” and were almost double on some of their items. Plus, they don’t
offer free same-day delivery and free brownies. Also, they were not nearly
as delightful to work with as you (Robin), Garth, and Lee.

Moral of the story: thanks for being my favorite office supply company!!”

Thank you Julie for providing valuable feedback. It really is good to know what our customers think of us.

If you would like to share any stories or feedback with us we would love to hear it. You can reply to this post on our website, do a review on our facebook page or you could even tweet it to the world (we do plan on joining the twitterati at some point).

Granite Office Supplies is proud to be a part of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and was recently presented on the KSL Newsradio Metro Business Report. Lucky for everyone this announcement is presented by Lane Beattie, President of the Salt Lake Chamber and not me. This is the radio version of our Virtual Fliers Announcement. To listen to the audio file please follow this link KSL Metro Business Report – Granite Office Supplies.

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Salt Lake City – Granite Office LLC is proud to announce that they have signed up to

participate in Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky Program. Granite Office has

committed to offset at least 50% of their energy consumption with Blue Sky credits. Blue

Sky is a renewable energy program offered for businesses and residential consumers to

offset their energy consumption with wind power. Customers can purchase blocks of 100

kilowatt hours for $1.95 per month. The money generated from this program is

guaranteed to go towards the purchase of renewable energy from newly developed

facilities in the western United States according to Rocky Mountain Power’s website.

“This is one of the steps we are taking to reduce our impact on the environment and offer

added value to our customers,” says Lee Mercer, Manager of Granite Office.

Granite Office, a local office supply and furniture dealer, is also a certified e2 business in

Salt Lake City. e2 business certification can be attained through the Salt Lake City

Green program under the direction of the Division of Sustainability in the Mayor’s

office. To be certified a company must meet goals that are economically and

environmentally sustainable each year. For Granite Office their goals include

implementing an office recycling program, replacing all cleaners with environmentally

friendly cleaners and educating employees on Environmentally Preferred Purchasing

(EPP) practices. The benefits should be 2 sided: decreased operational costs and reduced

environmental impact.

So is it difficult to become an e2 business? “Getting certified isn’t scary at all. The

process is really a service that will help improve your operations and reduce your carbon

footprint,” says Warren Lloyd of Lloyd Architects, an e2 business for 4 years. As such,

their firm has enjoyed the additional benefit of free networking events hosted by e2

members. Recent events were hosted by Squatters Pub Brewery and Hotel Monaco. Good

food and good company, not a bad reward for going green.

e2 businesses can also help other companies reduce their carbon footprint. “Our research

of delivery vehicles revealed that Natural Gas vehicles could reduce emissions by a

significant amount and allow us to provide the services our customers need,” says Granite

Office Owner Garth Hood. This has worked out so well that all of their delivery vehicles

run entirely on Natural Gas and they are able to offer free same-day delivery. Research

shows Carbon Dioxide is reduced 22-25%; Carbon Monoxide 94-95%, Nitrogen Oxide

70-96% and NonMethaneHydroCarbons 92-96% with Natural Gas as compared to

gasoline engines. Considering that smog (ground level ozone) is comprised of Nitrogen

Oxide and Hydrocarbons these vehicles have a major impact in reducing pollution on the

Wasatch Front. “Our delivery vehicles are constantly moving and so are our competitor’s.

We can let our customers know that they are directly improving the environment by

choosing to do business with us,” concludes Garth.

Granite Office Supplies and Furniture, a Salt Lake City, UT based office supply and office furniture company, will begin publishing sale fliers online. There will be two categories of sales: Local and National. The fliers will be published on the Granite Office Supplies Sales and Promotions page. There will also be an embedded link on all pages of the Granite Office company website.

Local Sales flyers will be available to customers located in the Wasatch Front region of Salt Lake City, Utah (North Ogden to Spanish Fork and Tooele to Park City).

National Sales flyers shall be available to all customers.

“Publishing sales online fits well with our company goals as a Salt Lake City certified e2 business. We are committed to reduce our environmental impact while offering an improved buying experience for our customers,” says Garth Hood co-owner of Granite Office.

e2 business certification can be attained through the Salt Lake City Green program under the direction of the Division of Sustainability in the Mayor’s office. To be certified a company must meet goals that are economically and environmentally sustainable each year. The benefits are 2 sided: reduced environmental impact and implementing economically sustainable business practices. Granite Office is now in their second year as an e2 business and is proud of the progress made.

“Our philosophy is that making money and preserving the environment are not mutually exclusive ideas, in fact, they can go together. This allows us to be very competitive on pricing for our customers and still provide the services you need. Your company will reduce its environmental impact by doing business with us.”  A pretty bold statement taken from the Granite Office website.

Granite Office Supplies has developed a business model that focuses on excellent customer service and, therefore, can provide services and pricing to local customers that exceeds expectations. They provide Free Same Day Delivery, Free Electronics Recycling Pick-up and a Recycling Program for used boxes and toner. They have partnered with Hewlett-Packard to offer PurchasEdge, a rewards program that enables customers to earn points that can be used towards future equipment purchases.

Granite Office is headquartered at 1745 S Milestone Drive Suite B-1 in Salt Lake City. They are open Monday through Friday from 8-5. Their phone number is 801-505-4050.

We received an interesting letter in the mail today from Google. They reported that Granite Office Supplies has been searched around 800 times during the 2nd quarter and because enough people searched for driving directions to our warehouse we have become a Google Favorite Place. They included a label with a barcode to place on our window that people can scan using an app and the camera on their phone and it will take them to our Google Local Business listing. We are excited to participate in this program and to see these little signs that we continue to grow as an office supply and furniture dealer.

First of all: our pricing is getting better for our customers. This, of course, is very good news. We really are learning as we go and recent plans we have put in place are going to ensure that our customers get the best pricing and service they can. I would go into details, but it is office supplies and I know that it’s not that exciting for most so I will hold myself back. What’s important is that we keep developing a business that keeps you running smoothly at great pricing. We know how important pricing is and we won’t forget it.

Other programs we are working on are: better values on furniture and printers, improving your online purchasing experience and operational processes that make us better.

We already have seen success with the furniture and can likely find you a great value on chairs if you are in the market. The printer rebate program is working out well also. We know everybody needs to find a good value and that is what we are striving to provide. I will be updating everyone on our latest offerings via our emails and this blog so stay tuned. We would also love feedback on any ideas you have that can help us serve you better.

After sending out this announcment Carol Christiansen sent some other cool images like this along. You can click on any of the images to get a better view of them:

We are growing and the deals we can offer keep getting better. We have developed a great working relationship with HP and are now able to offer printers at special pricing just like the big boys (Staples, Office Depot, and Office Max.) We plan to make known the best deals through emails and our website, however sales and rebates continually cycle so please contact us when it comes time for new equipment.

If you are interested in getting your next printer for free click here to learn about Purchasedge: HP’s rewards program.

We were featured on the  KSL Metro Business Report on May 29, 2009 and wanted to give everybody a chance to listen in. The metro business report is aired each day around 12:55 pm on KSL 1160 AM. Click to listen to the audio file: metro-biz-report-5.22.09-Granite Office

Here is the text of the report as well:

This message was derived from our press release that you can find here.

Granite Office is a proud member of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and wants to promote strong business relationships.