The Evolution of Printing Services

Whether the human species are knocked out by pestilence, comets, ice-ages, or by humankind itself via global warming; one thing remains the same;  it’s often a drastic, relatively short-term catastrophe that determines who will stay and who will go. The same goes for companies, although, the catastrophes in this case are almost always financial at the end of the day.

Case in point: discount printing services. At the turn of the century, Kinko’s was at the top of its game; in a few decades it had changed, again and again, the way people thought about printing: 24 hour service, competitive prices and trailblazing user-interfaces- what had started out as a way to offer college students products and printing services at competitive prices quickly became a worldwide phenomenon for business services and consumers alike.

Following the leaps in printing and information sharing technology, an explosion of discount printing services began popping up on the internet, driving down prices through the increasingly fierce competition: Family photos ready and delivered within 24 hours, professional poster advertising and graphic design services, offering everything from letterheads to postcards; massive integration. And to make things worse for bigwigs like Kinko’s, a financial crisis. Their catastrophe had arrived.

For everything that the financial crisis has wrought upon this country, one positive to come out of it has been that businesses and common folk, alike, have been made aware of the low-cost resource of the internet. Just like Kinko’s, who incidentally re-branded its name to FedEx Office in June 2008 (Kinko’s had been bought by FedEx in 2004), the credit shortage forced companies and consumers, alike, to seek out cheaper supply chains and services.

So what does the future hold for Kinko’s/FedEx Office? Well, it all comes down to customer service. The brand can be competitive in terms of its supply chain, but the overheads involved in renting huge retail spaces, along with paying wages to their customer service employees, are high. Time will tell if they can keep their prices low enough to compete with their online counterparts in the world of discount printing.