One of my very favorite summer jobs was in a stationery store. This is before the big-box office supply stores came into existence, but we packed a good selection of inventory into a small shopping-center spot, attracting business customers as well as people shopping for school supplies or items for personal use. I think I invested about 25% of each paycheck in office supplies, bought with my employee discount. I just can't resist the lure of new supplies, and I was preparing to attend graduate school, so I knew that the typing paper, pens, pencils, binders and legal pads would be put to good use. 
It was part of my job to know the difference between the various pens, pencils, markers and highlighters. I needed to know the features of the different types of paper, and I was good at eyeballing the right-sized padded mailing envelope for customers who brought in the item to be mailed (our store was just down the street from the post office and our mailers were far cheaper). I loved that we kept little pads of scrap paper near the pen displays. During slow times in the store, I think I tried every brand!
I still enjoy getting new pens. When my husband attends trade conventions, I raid his briefcase upon his return and "adopt" all the freebie pens he gets. Some of them have flashlights, or glow in the dark! How cool is that? And I recently discovered a new pen I really love. It comes in four colors and I have them all, and the kids are forbidden to take them. They can have all my husband's old freebie pens they want. These awesome new pens are mine.
Over the weekend my daughter and I were spending some time in a bookstore. I got a cup of coffee and browsed near the "new fiction" display. My daughter headed straight for the pricey notebooks. She likes the spiral-bound ones with thick, unruled paper. Not finding anything she liked, she inspected the scrapbooking items and sets of colored pencils, markers and fancy pens. My daughter and I are polar opposites in many ways, but we do have this in common: we love to shop for new office supplies.
COUPON TIME
I spent half the morning scouring the school library for pencils! We didn't have enough for a whole class. It's time to go shopping for a few supplies. How's your pencil inventory?
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