Is it safe to print important documents at FedEx?

American office retail chain

"Kinko" and "Kinko's" redirect here. For the former operations in Japan and South Korea, see Konica Minolta . For the town in Japan, see Kinkō, Kagoshima

FedEx Office Print & Ship Services Inc. (doing business as FedEx Office; formerly FedEx Kinko's, and earlier simply Kinko's) is an American retail chain that provides an outlet for FedEx Express and FedEx Ground (including Home Delivery) shipping, as well as copying, printing, marketing, office services and shipping. While FedEx, to the Kinko's founder's dismay,[3] dropped the Kinko's name in summer 2008, the name remains in use. Unlike its main competitor, The UPS Store, which is franchised, all FedEx Office stores are corporate-owned.

History

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Paul Orfalea, whose nickname was "Kinko" because of his curly hair, founded the company as Kinko's in 1970. Its first copy shop, which Orfalea opened with a sidewalk copy machine, was in the college community of Isla Vista, California next to the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He left the company in 2000, following a dispute with the investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice ("CDR"), to which he had sold a large stake in the company three years earlier.[4]

Kinko's played a significant role in the development of American counterculture in the 1980s and 1990s. In her study of the role of xerography in urban cultures in this period, the anthropologist Kate Eichhorn recounts:

At its height of popularity between the late 1980s and mid-1990s, Kinko's outlets in urban centres across North America were catch basins for writers, artists, anarchists, punks, insomniacs, graduate students, DIY bookmakers, zinesters, obsessive compulsive hobbyists, scam artists, people living on the street, and people just living on the edge. Whether you were promoting a new band or publishing a pamphlet on DIY gynaecology or making a fake ID for an underage friend, Kinko's was the place to be.[5]

A FedEx Office store with the FedEx Kinko's sign FedEx Office in Ontario, Canada

Orfalea wrote in his autobiography that disentangling him from Kinko's took enormous effort from the lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.[6] The problem was that rather than adopt the traditional franchising model (by which the promoter creates a corporation that sells franchises), he had built the company as a series of loosely connected personal partnerships between each store owner and himself.[7] By 1997, he had established over 127 Kinko's partnerships.[8] All had to be carefully dismantled and rolled into a single S corporation to convert the company to a more centralized corporate-owned business model. Orfalea and several other key partners believed doing so would decrease time Orfalea spent mediating disputes between different factions of Kinko's partnerships and enable the oldest partners to cash out smoothly and transition to a new generation of managers. However, the new structure also made it easier for CDR to gradually force him out of his own company.

Kinko's corporate headquarters was in Ventura, California for many years, but in 2002, the company relocated to Galleria Tower in Dallas, Texas. In February 2004, FedEx bought Kinko's for $2.4 billion, which then became known as FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Centers. Prior to the FedEx acquisition, most Kinko's stores were open 24 hours a day. After the acquisition, FedEx reduced the hours for many locations. On June 2, 2008, FedEx announced that they were re-branding FedEx Kinko's as FedEx Office, the retail branch of the FedEx Corporation. Some stores and branding still showed FedEx Kinko's signage until summer 2010. To ease customer confusion during the transition period, many stores displayed a large purple sign in the window that said "Kinko's Printing Inside."

Brian Phillips is the President and Chief Executive Officer, following Ken May's departure on March 7, 2008.[9][10] The company's primary clientele are small business and home office clients. According to the company, it has approximately 2,200 operating facilities.[11] With over $2 billion in revenues, the company is the 7th largest printing company in North America.[12] The company's primary competitors in the crowded North American market include The UPS Store, Office Depot/OfficeMax, AlphaGraphics, Staples, Sir Speedy, and Vistaprint.

Kinko's pursued an international expansion strategy during the boom years of the 1990s and early 2000s. Countries hosting FedEx Office centers outside the U.S. include Kuwait, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. Kinko's formerly operated in Australia, Mexico, and the Netherlands but withdrew from those markets in late 2008 due to low demand. During the 2008–2012 global recession, FedEx Office subsequently withdrew from China, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom. Konica Minolta bought the Japanese and South Korean operations from FedEx.[13][14][15]

On July 24, 2017, FedEx announced that its 24 Canadian stores, a manufacturing plant in Markham, Ontario, and its head office in Toronto, would be closing on August 18, 2017, after 32 years of operation with 214 employees being laid off. FedEx's Canadian shipping operations would continue, however.[16][17]

In March 2018, FedEx Office announced that it would open 500 stores inside of Walmart locations throughout the U.S.[18]

References

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FedEx Office DocStore Privacy Policy

At FedEx Office, we understand that your privacy is important to you. Consequently, we are committed to safeguarding your personal information and will protect the information you share with us. FedEx Office uses FedEx Office DocStore customer information only for purposes related to FedEx Office DocStore. We may share this information with outside parties so that we may process and bill your order. We will not share this information with outside parties for unrelated, non-solicited marketing activities.

How We Use Customer Information

As a user of FedEx Office DocStore either you or your company will first provide FedEx Office with certain contact information, including your name and a valid email address. We may use this information to contact you regarding orders you place on the system or other activity on the system such as requests to approve orders if you are designated corporate approver.

You may be asked to provide additional information, including your type or credit card, credit card number and billing and shipping address(es). If FedEx Office has trouble processing your order we'll use this information to contact you. FedEx Office may share aggregated demographic information with its strategic partners and other advertisers. Aggregated demographic information is not linked to any information that could potentially identify you.

General Privacy Provisions

When we refer to "FedEx Office," we are referring to FedEx Office and Print Services and its affiliates and subsidiaries. This Privacy Policy applies to all information that FedEx Office collects through FedEx Office DocStore.

While using FedEx Office DocStore , you accept and agree to the terms and conditions of this Security & Privacy Policy ("Privacy Policy"). To better serve your privacy needs and to adapt to changing legal and industry standards, FedEx Office periodically reviews this Privacy Policy. FedEx Office reserves the right, at its sole discretion to make modifications, alterations or updates to this Privacy Policy at any time. Please periodically check this Privacy Policy for any modifications, alterations or updates.

Notwithstanding this Privacy Policy, FedEx Office reserves the right to disclose any information or documents that, in its sole discretion, are reasonably necessary to protect FedEx Office or its business, including but not limited to complying with a court order, order from any administrative body or law enforcement officials. FedEx Office reserves the right to disclose such information or documents without a subpoena, warrant or other court order in certain situation, including but not limited to instances where you: (i) are in violation of the Terms & Conditions Statement governing this site; (ii) have engaged, or are alleged to have engaged, in any activity purporting to infringe upon the intellectual property rights of another; or (iii) have engaged, or are alleged to have engaged, in any other illegal conduct or activity. FedEx Office reserves the right to disclose your personal information whenever required by any court, administrative body or law enforcement agency. FedEx Office also reserves the right to report any suspected illegal activity to such entities for investigation and prosecution.

If you have any questions or comments concerning this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

FedEx Office Customer Relations
P.O. Box 1935
Provo, UT 84603-9926
fedexoffice.customerrelations@fedex.com