Tide Office Supply will close

Alicia Robinson

For 54 years, the Joyner family has been there when people needed to

write a memo or staple a report together.

Though it has relocated several times over the years, Tide Office

Supply has been the Joyner family business since Fred Joyner opened

it in 1949 on the Newport Boulevard where Malarkey’s Irish Pub is

now.

His daughter, Susan Joyner, who has been running the business for

the last three years, recently decided to close the retail store at

2823 Newport Blvd. in January. She will continue to supply local

companies that make up the bulk of her clientele.

With the trend moving toward bigger chain stores such as Staples

and Office Depot, Susan Joyner said she doesn’t get as many walk-in

customers these days.

“Most of my business is phone, fax, e-mail orders by now,” she

said.

One of Joyner’s longtime customers has been the Newport Beach

Police Department.

“We’ve had a great working relationship over the years,” said

property and evidence officer John Pabis, who orders office supplies

for the department.

The Joyners’ store was one of the few office supply outlets in

town when Pabis joined the department in 1975, he said.

Pabis himself will retire next week, and he asked Joyner to keep

her store open until he leaves. Over the years, the department tried

other suppliers, but it got the best service from Tide Office Supply,

he said.

“We find the service dealing with them very easy,” he said. “They

know what I need without me even writing it down.”

While the business now uses computers, Susan Joyner said she’s

tried to keep other things about Tide Office Supply the same as when

it opened.

She still uses an old crank-operated cash register, and some

customers even have a tab that’s written on a piece of paper.

“We know most of our customers by name; we know what they buy,”

she said.

After she closes the store, she’ll run the business from an office

in her Costa Mesa home and from some warehouse space through which

she plans to continue serving individual customers.

One of the reasons she didn’t close the business earlier is the

personal relationships she and her family have had with customers.

Her father worked in the store until he was 88, her two brothers have

worked there, and Susan Joyner herself began her career in office

supplies when she was very young.

“It’s nice hearing people that remembered my dad and the way

things have been over the years,” she said.