The FRED Blog Team remembers the introduction of computers and printers in the workplace: Printing became effortless. Now we rely almost entirely on digital files and hardly ever print paper copies anymore.
So, given that most documents remain in digital form, we’d expect to see a decline in the sale of paper. But is the anecdotal evidence reflected in the official statistics?
FRED doesn’t carry data specifically for retail sales of printing paper, but FRED does offer data for the broader category of office supply and stationery stores. Once we take price changes into account, using the CPI, we see a couple of things:
- There was a rapid boom in office supplies and stationery in the last years of the 20th century.
- Inflation-adjusted sales are now just one-fifth of what they were in the early 2000s.
So, yes: The data do seem consistent with the real-world evidence.
How these graphs were created: Search FRED for “stationery.” Click on “Edit Graph,” add series “CPI,” and apply formula a/b*100.
Suggested by George Fortier and Christian Zimmermann.
