OfficeMax Founder Enters HME Arena

CLEVELAND—The office supply wizard who grew OfficeMax from
an idea into a billion-dollar company before selling it five years
ago is using his entrepreneurial skills to a develop a new chain of
wellness stores set to open in September.

Max-Wellness prototype stores will open in Westlake, Ohio, and a
Cleveland suburb, as well as in Naples, Fla., according to
published reports. A national rollout of 10 to 15 more stores will
follow in 2010, ramping up to 30 to 50 store openings annually by
2012, officials said. Complementary Internet and catalog operations
will launch, as well.

The stores will carry everything from mobility devices,
incontinence and wound products to vitamins and quality-of-life
products—or QLPs, as the company calls them.

The concept is the brainchild of Michael Feuer, who in 2003 sold
his chain of OfficeMax stores to Boise Cascade Corp. for $1.5
billion. Feuer is partnering with Jared Florian, who owns six
national mail-order catalogs, to found and fund the new
project.

Feuer, who until December was bound by a five-year, non-compete
clause, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he has been
looking for “the next great retail product,” and he
believes he has found it with the concept of the wellness
stores.

“I’m a big believer in low-hanging fruit, giving people
something before they know they want it,” he told the
newspaper. “I did it before and I want to see if I can do it
again.”

According to the company’s fact sheet, Max-Wellness is
banking on the demographics that show 100 million consumers over
the age of 50 are out there with $8 trillion to spend—and
many want to spend those bucks on products that help them feel
better and live longer.

With the intent of capturing that demographic and creating a
leading one-stop wellness store, Max-Wellness will be structured as
what the company calls a “mini superstore.”

It will feature, the company said in its fact sheet, “in one
convenient location all of the devices, lotions and potions
typically found in a drug store, combined with a myriad of
products, both basic and unique, to enable Americans to live well
and stay well.”

Officials also promised that Max-Wellness “will add drama,
theater, organization and educational information to the in-store,
online and catalog equation, bringing products to life by
translating what they are into how they can provide a
solution.”

Personnel will be “professionally dressed and trained”
and will be able to use technology to answer consumers’
health care questions.

“This will create an environment where Max-Wellness will
quickly be established and recognized as the go-to store for better
living,” the fact sheet says.