[yashg]

When I joined a new job about 7 years back I was given a brand new stapler, a roll of tape and other office supplies on the joining day. When I left 4 years later I hadn't even finished one cartridge of stapler lins. Tape was unused as well. A company of Google's size must be wasting a non trivial amount of money on things nobody uses as frequently anymore.

[Eddy_Viscosity2]

At my company there is a room full of office supplies - called the supply room. If you need something you go and get it there. It has all the usual things. If they run low, they buy more. If things aren't running low, they don't buy more. As a new employee you are told where this is and you get what you need when you need it. If you don't need it, you don't take it. Seems like a pretty sensible system.

[dwaltrip]

The cost of those items is incredible trivial compared to the salary they paid you.

There is a sort of quirk here that causes people to focus on things like this, even if they are overwhelmingly insubstantial.

Wasting physical objects feels bad. Something about the physicality of it. Whereas salary is more abstract and intangible - we experience it as numbers changing on a screen. Important numbers that greatly affect our lives, but the visceral impact of this is more removed.

Reducing waste is good, obviously. But in a cost-saving effort, basic office supplies are a completely useless thing to focus on.

[midoridensha]

I can get a stapler and a tape dispenser (a really nice heavy one) for 110 yen each at my local Daiso. That's USD$0.83 each, at retail prices.

[anotheruser13]

It's $1.50-2.00 each for those items at Daiso in the US.