Essendant, formerly known as United Stationers, is a national wholesale distributor of office supplies, with consolidated net sales of $5.3 billion. Essendant stocks over 160,000 items including traditional office products, office furniture, janitorial and break room supplies, technology products, industrial supplies and automotive aftermarket tools and equipment. Essendant is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois and also has operations in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The company operates as an online retailer and sells industrial tools direct to consumers.

Staples Inc. is an American office retail company. It is primarily involved in the sale of office supplies and related products, via retail channels and business-to-business (B2B)-oriented delivery operations. The company opened its first store in Brighton, Massachusetts on May 1, 1986.[4] By 1996, it had reached the Fortune 500, and it later acquired the office supplies company Quill Corporation. In 2014, in the wake of increasing competition from e-commerce market, Staples began to close some of its locations. In 2015, Staples announced its intent to acquire Office Depot and OfficeMax. However, the purchase was blocked under antitrust grounds due to the consolidation that would result. After the failed acquisition, Staples began to refocus its operations to downplay its brick-and-mortar outlets, and place more prominence on its B2B supply business. In 2017, after its sale to Sycamore Partners, the company was effectively split into three “independently managed and capitalized” entities sharing the Staples name, separating its U.S. and Canadian retail operations from the B2B business.