Despite the shaky economic climate, businesses all over southern California are still competing to acquire both new employees and the necessary office space to house them all. With the tech, aerospace, automotive, and a plethora of other industries looking to take advantage of the highly skilled workforce in the area, it’s looking like whatever poor economic times may come, the southland may end up a bastion of prosperity.
This has had the tertiary effect of creating a significant amount of strain on the local inventories of office equipment. Everything from break room equipment to cubicles seems to be out of stock or have a turnaround time measured not in weeks but months or quarters.
This is, of course, no good for the companies rushing to stock up their newly acquired office space in time for their new slate of employees to arrive. This leaves them with two options: finding an office equipment supplier who has quick ship options that can provide new office furniture or buying used. Each comes with its own pros and cons.
New Quick Ship Office Furniture
Pros
There’s little need to introduce the pro-side of buying new office furniture. It’s brand new, with no worries of evidence of prior usage, it’s fresh and stylish, and it is likely to retain its value for a good, long while.
Cons
New furniture is often much more expensive than its used counterparts. This is by far its greatest drawback – if your organization is looking to cut costs thanks to the expenses incurred by moving or for any other reason, it’s best to look for some lightly used furniture to save a buck or two.
The second major con is specifically for quick-ship options. Quick ship options work by buying up a large stock of readily interchangeable parts for immediate shipment. While customization is still possible, you will miss out on being able to custom order your equipment if you have a specialized aesthetic that you’re looking to impart to your office.
That being said, office suppliers who successfully weathered the supply chain crisis like Creative Office Design have equipped companies operating in aerospace, logistics, food distribution, and everything in between with nothing available but quick-ship cubicles and desk solutions. The trick is to get creative with the options available to you and not get too hung up on what does and doesn’t conform to your vision.
Used Office Furniture
Pros
Used options are almost always cheaper than anything you can get new on the market, so if your organization is strapped for cash, used is the way to go. Most of the time, the quality of the furniture is almost on-par with new equipment, anyway, so unless you’re getting very old furniture sets, no one is likely to know the difference.
Used office furniture like cubicles and desks also have the benefit of reducing your carbon footprint since the material has already been manufactured and it doesn’t need to be transported over the ocean in gigantic, floating environmental disasters (a.k.a. Container ships).
Cons
While in most cases you’re not going to be able to notice a difference, used furniture HAS been used, and much like a used car, you’re not going to be able to know the extent of the hidden signs of that usage until you’ve bought it. You might find that the last owner’s employees didn’t take as good care of their materials as they should have, which may require replacement or further refurbishment.
Whichever route you choose for furnishing your new office, you’re going to need to design your office to take full advantage of the new space and comfortably arrange your workforce. That’s where the design services of a company like Creative Office Design come into place – not only can you buy new or used office furniture and cubicles from the company, they’ll help create an office layout that best serves your employees and business.
Give them a call today to see how they can turn your dream office into a reality:
Creative Office Design
714-576-8543
5230 Pacific Concourse Dr #105, Los Angeles, CA