Real Life “Dunder Mifflin” Thrived in Declining Industry for Decades

NBC’s hit sitcom “The Office” uses a mid-size paper and office supply company as a thinly-veiled prop for comedy – and whether you loved the show or hated it, it was hard to deny that the idea was funny.

Who needs a middleman, regional office supply company in the age of the internet, discount big box stores, and an increasingly paperless corporate America? How much does “personal touch” and “quality of service” really matter when you’re buying paperclips?

In the show, it’s taken for granted that the company is in an inevitable decline, because the industry is dying, edged out by shifting technology and huge conglomerates with economies of scale and vertical integration that just can’t be beaten. This is essentially what happened in real life, too, for hundreds of regional office supply companies around the country. They couldn’t compete, they became irrelevant, and they ceased to exist.

But one real-life company in Chattanooga, Tennessee is still standing, and it’s worth 8 figures.

Here’s how they did it.

Not on My Watch

When Henry “Skip” Ireland’s father died in 1983, he didn’t feel like he was ready to take over the family business. Skip was only 27, and his brothers were 23 and 21 respectively. But Chattanooga Office Supply had been in the family for over 40 years by that time, and they decided that no matter the odds, they wouldn’t let it go down while it was their turn to steward it.

The business had been largely propped up by their father, who was a singular salesman with deep relationships and a winning work ethic. He had brought in and maintained about 80% of their revenue at the time of his passing, and with his passing, the company was quickly in crisis…

Jan Hatzius, chief economist for Goldman Sachs, isn’t always a bull on the market, but he is one currently. Having developed a following after correctly predicting a severe recession leading up to 2008, Hatzius remains firmly in the “soft landing” camp, calling a 2.3% GDP growth, unemployment below 4%, and only a 15% chance of recession. His predictions, however, make some nervous as the January inflation report was hotter than expected, and one of his recent reports was actually titled “This cycle is different,” a sort of “famous last words” phrase on Wall Street. The bears, on the other hand, such as Jeremy Grantham, continue to call a recession…

According to recent survey data, YouTube is the most widely used social media platform in the United States, with fully 83% of U.S. adults saying they use the site. Facebook isn’t too far behind, at 68%, but its growth in the U.S. has been stagnant for the last eight years or so and recently has even declined slightly. TikTok, while still used by just 33% of U.S. adults, is growing rapidly – faster than its competitors – and only half of TikTok users have ever posted on their profile…

The fertility industry has been thrown into a panic after a decision by the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that unborn children are children. In response, at least 3 Alabama clinics have paused IVF treatments already as they worry that the storage – and sometimes destruction – of fertilized embryos in the IVF process could expose them to legal trouble. Despite their concerns, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has said that he does not intend to use the ruling to bring charges against IVF families or providers. Both parties in the state legislature are in the process of drafting new legislation that would stipulate that frozen embryos are not to be considered children under the state constitution – though that could theoretically be struck down by the court. In the wake of the decision, Christians debate the complexities that the ruling brings up…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: When Jesus miraculously fed the crowd, did He feed 5,000 or 4,000?

Answer at the bottom

TIPS & TRICKS

Talking to Strangers – How to Make Better Hiring Decisions

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Talking to Strangers, he chronicles a humbling truth about human beings:

We think we are good at sizing people up during short interactions, but the data says we aren’t.

In fact, we’re awful at it.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to Christians. After all, our own scriptures warn us that the heart is difficult to understand (Jer. 17:9). In the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, we’re taught that the righteous and the wicked often look the same on the outside for a while, and it’s not clear who is who until it’s time to see the fruit (Matt. 13:24-43).

Judging the heart of a person is a tricky proposition, even in less spiritual, more practical circumstances like a job interview, a courtroom, or an interrogation.

Even police officers, judges, and diplomats struggle to correctly sense when people are lying or misrepresenting themselves, and often, we mistakenly peg a good person for a bad one if they happen to be a little quirky.

Why does this matter to us? Because, generally speaking, every time we hire someone, we are essentially judging a stranger. We want to know if they will be honest, trustworthy, hardworking, and creative. A good hire can be a tremendous boost to a small business. A bad hire can be devastating – and expensive.

So, how can we ensure that we are judging people correctly as they sit in the interview chair? How can we improve our odds of making sound hiring decisions?…

• Hillsong founder Brian Houston suggests his X account may have been hacked after an embarrassing tweet. The Sent To Win team isn’t buying it.

• In response to mounting pressure, some major U.S. companies are quietly backing away from association with ESG and DEI.

• In response to the release of Open AI’s text-to-video application, Tyler Perry has paused his $800 million studio expansion project in Atlanta.

• The Christian prayer app “Hallow” now occupies the #1 spot in Apple’s app store.