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By Van Wade

For nearly 70 years, Orange Stationer has been providing Orange County residents and so many other areas with office supplies and furniture for every kind of need.

From pens, paper and printers to amazing furniture and file cabinets, Orange Stationer has been a “go-to” place for large companies, small companies and those individuals that love to have a comfortable place to work at from home.

Paul and Kim Dickerson purchased Orange Stationer in late 2015 from Henry Seals, who had owned the business for over 34 years. The Dickersons have been busy for almost five years with the store and have expanded the business a great deal with a lot of great new ideas.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, Orange Stationer has been a great place to pick other assorted supplies that have been so important during all of this.

They include toilet paper, paper towels and hand sanitizer.

“When we’ve had those supplies, it has really kept us busy for sure,” said Paul Dickerson. “Businesses and folks are still needing those important office supplies as well. The only thing that has really showed signs of slowing down is the printing side of the business, especially with our lobby being closed still.”

With the store being an essential business, their curbside pickup has definitely kept employees busy, as well as making plenty of deliveries.

Late last week they received shipments of toilet paper that came in cases of 96 and also paper towels that came in cases of 30 and hand sanitizer that came in one gallon and four gallons.

Dickerson, who has more than 32 years of retail experience at multiple levels, has seen plenty of great response from Orange Stationer’s website orangestationerinc.com.

“We’ve really opened things up on our website and people have been able to log in and they can get delivery pretty quick,” said Dickerson. “Now, customers can go online and see how much we have in stock. In the past, it didn’t show the stock to the public.”

Orange Stationer has been getting creative to help people in these different times.

“We’ve gotten in a lot of food take-out boxes and we also have plenty of picnic packs, with you basic spoons and forks with napkins. We’ve definitely thought outside of the box and we just want to be able to help people anyway we can until we can all get through this.”

Some of the everyday business that the store is accustomed too is still going well.

“We’re still serving our great customers, whether they are in industry, the restaurant business or they run an insurance agency,” said Dickerson. “Everyone still needs their office supply essentials.”

Another neat concept has been with restaurants.

“We work with a vendor that can do disposable menus,” said Dickerson. “It’s a really neat deal, especially with what is going on now. It’s kind of a new concept for most, but it is also something that can work well, even when all of this is over.”

Since the Dickersons have owned the store, they have seen trying times for the area with the Sabine River flood of 2016, Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019 and now COVID-19.

“Without a doubt, it’s been challenging,” said Dickerson. “With every obstacle, there is always an opportunity. There are some nice positive things happening for Orange. Some of it is happening now and some of it is coming. We just want to continue to be there for our customers and give them the best customer service we can.”

Dickerson wants people to be aware to please shop local merchants.

“I know so many local business owners and I want them to thrive, so everyone needs to remember all of the nice local people that need their business,” said Dickerson. “I know this sounds a little cliché, and I’ve heard it a lot lately. Just think of those youth league sports teams and how they have gotten tremendous local sponsorships from tremendous local business owners. You just don’t see that with the big chain stores and restaurants. Now is the time for people in the area to shop local at all of the locally-owned businesses to show them support through all of this. I am one of them that can say it is personally appreciated.”