Paper Losses

I visited one of my print shop clients recently to finish some tax reports and pick up bookkeeping papers. As he refilled his copier for the third time with 800 sheets, holding a ream of paper, he said, "And each pack of paper is short." My eyes glossed until the weight of his words sunk in.

"What?"

"Yeah. Each ream is short. The average ream has 493 sheets instead of the 500 listed on the package."

I asked him how he knew this, knowing he would never sit down and count how many sheets are in a pack.

He pointed to his printer. "The machine prints the customer the right amount."

Argument settled and a lesson learned. Consumers of paper are suffering a paper loss and don't know it. And even though we are a paperless office, we still use enough paper to make the shortage count (pun intended.)

The 7 page average shortage is 1.4%. A small office may spend $10,000 a year on paper (accounting offices, at least.) This adds up to around $140 per year in losses. I don't know about you, but $140 means a lot to me. I feel violated. And now that you know, you do, too.

Welcome to my world.