Another article about refilling stations, this time from the Chicago Tribune. They report that OfficeMax will begin advertising their refilling service today and that next week Walgreens will begin offering their service. Both of these stores are currently offering their refilling services in the Chicago area, but now it seems like they are ready to go nationwide.

The article starts off with a pretty entertaining quote:

What was once seen as a grimy task reserved for frugal technology geeks, environmentalists and hobbyists is now about to be legitimized in a huge way, as at least two big retailers roll out inkjet refilling stations at stores nationwide.

We didn’t know all our customers were geeks…..but seriously, this perception is still around and maybe something like this can change it. We know that some of our customers do use our ink cartridges for environmental reasons or our refill kits because they enjoy doing things themselves, but the majority of our customers come to us initially for one reason: the savings. As the article points out, people are tired of paying more for replacement cartridges than they did for the machine.

The printing business is booming. Thanks to the growth of digital photography, desktop publishing and affordable color printers, the digital-imaging-supplies business will top $100 billion in 2006, according to a report released Monday by Lyra Research in Newton, Mass. By comparison, the hardware market–think printers–will account for $60 billion this year, the research found.

If these numbers are truly accurate (they seem about right) then they are pretty eye-opening. This year there will be $100 billion worth of ink and paper sold. Wow. If you think about the ratio of $100 billion to $60 billion for supplies versus hardware, you might wonder why it is so off. Well, just think of things in the long term. Say you spent $120 on your printer - is it crazy to think that you would spend $200 on ink this year? It might seem a little high, but say you had to buy a black and a color ink cartridge and they were $25 each (a conservative estimate if you are buying brand name cartridges). If you replaced the cartridges four times in a year, then you will have spent $200. For a while people did not realize this, and they were just happy to get a really cheap (or even free) printer. But these days, most people are probably pretty aware of how the cost of the manufacturer’s ink can add up really quickly.

The article is worth a read. It is the most informative and in-depth one we have read about these refilling stations and the state of the printing market in general.

Refill ‘er up [Chicago Tribune]