Don’t change your logo – change your URL. Change your logo – don’t change your URL. Change your apartment – change the world.
WEEK 48 – Statesboro Office DepotMax, Set II
In this pic we’re glancing from the (covered, former) display cases at the (erstwhile) customer service counter up towards the store’s checkouts, above which the front wall thanks customers for shopping and also alerts them that they are invited to shop online. And as I noted in our first upload from this week (on Tuesday), despite the fact that this store’s exterior signage was changed over to Office Depot, both of those instances on the wall here still remain unchanged from their original OfficeMax nomenclature.
This is particularly egregious, so to speak, where the “officemax.com” reference is concerned, since, oh, officemax.com doesn’t actually exist anymore. Indeed, even though they may only have received zero or minimal updates otherwise, it seems that most, if not all, OfficeMax stores chainwide at least received some method of redirecting shoppers to the new joint webpage at officedepot.com, in lieu of the now-defunct officemax.com. There are several examples of this that I’ve seen in practice, ranging in ease of application.
Perhaps the simplest is just the hanging banner that can be cleverly placed so as to block the outdated reference on the wall. You can check that one out here. We also saw it in Jonesboro (even though that particular OfficeMax didn’t have a .com reference on the wall to begin with).
The next step up is a permanent red sticker to be applied directly over the officemax.com reference, burying it away for good behind the new officedepot.com URL. This seems like it’s also a common method of updating the website; you can see one example of it in action here.
And finally, in searching out image links to use in fleshing out this description, I came across perhaps the most intense example of all. Ironically, I don’t actually see a URL at this particular location, but the store in question nonetheless applied new co-branded “Office Depot OfficeMax” stickers literally almost *everywhere* the OfficeMax name could be seen. Multiple areas along the front end? Check (that’s just one example in the linked photo there). Even on the décor signs themselves, replacing red circles that used to read only “OfficeMax” with new red rectangles that include both brands’ names? Check (see the center and right-hand sides of that pic, paying attention to the black-and-gray striped backgrounds)!
And do you know what’s craziest about this whole situation? Despite all the (varying levels of) effort placed into updating those linked stores’ interiors to reflect the new website URL and/or overall merger, not a single one of them has changed their signage on the outside of the building. That’s right – they’re all still OfficeMaxes! And they still went to that degree of effort to update their signage on the inside. Compare that to this store in Statesboro, which actually did rebrand itself, officially, on the exterior, to Office Depot – but not a lick of further effort was put into the interior, not even a measly little sticker or hanging banner to hide away the defunct officemax.com URL, for crying out loud!!
It’s a baffling situation, to say the least, and I know I’m using some strong language here, but that’s only to try and (hopefully) convey the bizarreness effectively enough for you guys. In truth… I absolutely *love* crazy stuff like this!! One of my favorite things in this hobby is to come across things that don’t match up and subsequently get to share and discuss it with all of y’all. I hope you find this as fun as I do.
(c) 2020 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)
Don’t change your logo – change your URL. Change your logo – don’t change your URL. Change your apartment – change the world.
WEEK 48 – Statesboro Office DepotMax, Set II
In this pic we’re glancing from the (covered, former) display cases at the (erstwhile) customer service counter up towards the store’s checkouts, above which the front wall thanks customers for shopping and also alerts them that they are invited to shop online. And as I noted in our first upload from this week (on Tuesday), despite the fact that this store’s exterior signage was changed over to Office Depot, both of those instances on the wall here still remain unchanged from their original OfficeMax nomenclature.
This is particularly egregious, so to speak, where the “officemax.com” reference is concerned, since, oh, officemax.com doesn’t actually exist anymore. Indeed, even though they may only have received zero or minimal updates otherwise, it seems that most, if not all, OfficeMax stores chainwide at least received some method of redirecting shoppers to the new joint webpage at officedepot.com, in lieu of the now-defunct officemax.com. There are several examples of this that I’ve seen in practice, ranging in ease of application.
Perhaps the simplest is just the hanging banner that can be cleverly placed so as to block the outdated reference on the wall. You can check that one out here. We also saw it in Jonesboro (even though that particular OfficeMax didn’t have a .com reference on the wall to begin with).
The next step up is a permanent red sticker to be applied directly over the officemax.com reference, burying it away for good behind the new officedepot.com URL. This seems like it’s also a common method of updating the website; you can see one example of it in action here.
And finally, in searching out image links to use in fleshing out this description, I came across perhaps the most intense example of all. Ironically, I don’t actually see a URL at this particular location, but the store in question nonetheless applied new co-branded “Office Depot OfficeMax” stickers literally almost *everywhere* the OfficeMax name could be seen. Multiple areas along the front end? Check (that’s just one example in the linked photo there). Even on the décor signs themselves, replacing red circles that used to read only “OfficeMax” with new red rectangles that include both brands’ names? Check (see the center and right-hand sides of that pic, paying attention to the black-and-gray striped backgrounds)!
And do you know what’s craziest about this whole situation? Despite all the (varying levels of) effort placed into updating those linked stores’ interiors to reflect the new website URL and/or overall merger, not a single one of them has changed their signage on the outside of the building. That’s right – they’re all still OfficeMaxes! And they still went to that degree of effort to update their signage on the inside. Compare that to this store in Statesboro, which actually did rebrand itself, officially, on the exterior, to Office Depot – but not a lick of further effort was put into the interior, not even a measly little sticker or hanging banner to hide away the defunct officemax.com URL, for crying out loud!!
It’s a baffling situation, to say the least, and I know I’m using some strong language here, but that’s only to try and (hopefully) convey the bizarreness effectively enough for you guys. In truth… I absolutely *love* crazy stuff like this!! One of my favorite things in this hobby is to come across things that don’t match up and subsequently get to share and discuss it with all of y’all. I hope you find this as fun as I do.
(c) 2020 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)