JOHN AND LYNDA BRYANT, JERRY AND BECKY EHRLICH
EHRLICH’S OFFICE PRODUCTS
Retail sales of office supplies, furniture and more
Years Downtown:
Three Generations
Little Known Fact:
We sponsored the City of Olympia Bowling Team for many years!
Our Story:
Jon and Jerry’s grandfather, Burt Grainger, opened Grainger’s Office Supplies in 1939. It was located in what is now the New Caldonia Building on 5th Avenue. The business has always been family owned and operated—Jon and Jerry’s mother, Helen, her husband Jo and her brother, Dean all worked there. Another employee, Bill Griswold, later started his own stationery store, which he and his son Brad ran until it burned down a few years ago.
After both Grandpa Burt and Uncle Dean passed away, the torch passed to Helen and Jo, and they opened Ehrlich Stationers in 1966. At the time Jon was in the Air Force and Jerry was in college; both joined the family business within a few years. Jerry’s wife Becky started at Ehrlich’s in 1980.
When Jo built our store at its current location, some people wondered why he would move so far out of “downtown,” but Jo wanted a building with off street parking and believed that eventually Olympia would grow to include our area as part of downtown, and it has. We doubled the size of the building, and the addition is now occupied by The Other Guys Inc. (TOGI….computer and network services), also locally owned and operated. They have proven to be a great tenant—both we and our customers use each others services.
Our children have all worked here at one time or another, so perhaps we should say we are a fourth generation business—sometimes even the fifth generation grandchildren can be found putting our copiers and office supplies to new and creative uses!
We still have a few relics from “the old days” on display at the store today, but have moved far beyond the fountain pens and ledger books of our beginnings. We carry many recycled products, buy local as much as possible and do deliveries in a hybrid Prius. Our most recent improvement is a web-based flip-book catalog. Check it out at www.pencilplanet.com!
What I Love About Olympia:
The trees, Percival Landing, fountain, walk around Capitol Lake, Music in the Park, public art, music scene, Evergreen, all the independently owned local businesses, the great restaurants, friendly people, the fact that we actually have a vibrant downtown and all our wonderful customers!
