How the Staples/Workbar Partnership Will Become the #2 Coworking Force In the Country

We’ve seen the meteoric rise over past few years in every major city across the country. The service has now become available in just about every metropolitan market and just keeps going. Freelancers, entrepreneurs, and startups have long sung the praises of working these highly charged environments. Development teams execute critical sprints in the conference rooms. Companies hold the sales meeting/ product seminars in the open spaces. Personally, I find that my drive factor goes into hyperspace when I drop in at one of these facilities when I’m working in NYC. (LMHQ is my haunt of choice). You just feed off the environment.

Despite all of the mega growth that coworking has provided to the urban areas, there still is a critical mass of the under served that reside in the high density suburbs. Commuting for an hour or more just to get to work for people in a startup just does’t make sense from either a monetary or time standpoint. The alternatives the suburbs simply suck — Starbucks, the public library, etc — none of which are compatible to achieve a solid day’s work in. Or one can pay through the nose at one of the weekly/monthly office venues that usually don’t offer anything in the way of free services. Want us to collect your mail — there’s a charge. Conference room — -charge. Never mind trying to get a team together to finish a mission critical project — it’ not going to happen easily. The options are few and far between and the truth of the matter is none of them work.

Until now

This week Staples and Workbar opened up 3 Workbar coworking spaces in Staples stores this week in the Boston area. This is the first major partnership between two companies in the country to offer a coworking concept in a high density suburban area. It’s about time somebody took the clue thank God.

You can read the whole press release from Workbar’s blog right here

Some people might shrug their shoulders and say nice idea

I say get ready to hold on to your seats boys and girls

If this trial run takes hold, just watch Workbar and Staples roll out this concept nationwide. Staples has the real estate already in place and is the player in the office supply vertical. They have an established brand presence in every advertising medium. It’s nothing for their digital marketing team to implement a whole “Staples Does Coworking” campaign at a flick of the switch. Workbar has been the coworking vertical since 2009 and knows the ins an outs of the business just better than just about anybody else in the space. Once the model is perfected, it just a matter of rolling it out.

I’ll make my prediction right now. The Staples/Workbar partnership will result in the 2nd largest coworking force in 18–24 months behind WeWork

In short — Staples will make coworking a concept that everybody will understand — plain and simple.

That was easy