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<p>SCRANTON &#8212; For more than 90 years, 94 to be precise, Pennsylvania Paper and Supply has been a staple in downtown Scranton.</p><p>The family-owned company is now in its third generation of ownership with president Douglas Fink now at the helm. Starting way back in 1922 by Jacob Fink, Douglas&#8217; grandfather, the store operated as a mom and pop grocery store. In 1947, Jerry Fink, Douglas&#8217; father, took over as president and owner, and added janitorial supplies to the surplus. Douglas became president in 1993.</p><p>&#8220;When you&#8217;re in business for that period of time and with the family legacy, it gives you a different perspective on things,&#8221; Fink said. &#8220;You tend to look at everything in a long term perspective which I think has served us well. We think long term relationships are the best way to deliver value to our customers because we know them better than they know themselves, we&#8217;ve been serving them so long.&#8221;</p><p>The company has been in the same 10,000 square foot building on Vine Street since the 1970s. The building has been such a success that it&#8217;s become a very popular tourist attraction.</p><p>That&#8217;s because PA Paper and Supply is the company after which the hit television show &#8220;The Office&#8221; was marked.</p><p>How did a small city like Scranton become the hot spot for such a popular show? It started in 2004 when Douglas Fink received a phone call from NBC telling him a show about a paper company was in the works.</p><p>&#8220;I said, &#8216;Who is this really?&#8217; And they said, &#8216;No really. There&#8217;s a British version of The Office and we&#8217;re going to make an American version of The Office,&#8217;&#8221; Fink said.</p><p>After that, the rest is pretty much history because the show took off putting Scranton, and PA Paper and Supply, on the map.</p><p>The Electric City has been a craze for &#8220;The Office&#8221; in the past, hosting conventions and featuring a store based on the show in the Steamtown Mall. Three years ago, &#8220;The Office&#8221; wrap party was held at PNC Field in Moosic.</p><p>Just a few years ago, the longtime establishment made a sign that goes over one of its towers that shows Dunder Mifflin, the fictional company from &#8220;The Office.&#8221; In 2011, the tower was mentioned as the third-most recognizable stock footage in television behind the restaurant from Seinfeld and the Brady Bunch house, according to videoblocks.com.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s always interesting, but doesn&#8217;t phase me as much as other people get excited about it,&#8221; Fink said. &#8220;The fans are excited about it.&#8221;</p><p>Like Dunder Mifflin, Pennsylvania Paper and Supply Co. offers office paper and paper products like paper packaging, toilet tissue, paper towels, but the majority of the products sold by the company are janitorial supplies. The institution delivers to business clients from Pennsylvania to New York and as far away as Texas. Thanks to the Internet, the company has been able to grow even more.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve embraced technology unlike some others who are no longer here. We used to have competitors in the area, and now it&#8217;s down to just us and maybe one other,&#8221; Fink said. &#8220;People have more choices. They&#8217;ve always had choices, but now they&#8217;re different. While our local competition has all but been eliminated, the national competitors that we&#8217;re going up against have been an issue.&#8221;</p><p>Just like &#8220;The Office,&#8221; Pennsylvania Paper and Supply has a family working atmosphere with employees who have worked there for dozens of years. In fact, one employee recently retired after 50 years. The company consists of about 300 employees, including salespersons and warehouse workers and on-site workers of more than 100 locations in Pennsylvania and New York.</p><p>&#8220;Clearly, the service of what we deliver is not just products, but value-added services that we bring that you don&#8217;t get from the national chains and you can&#8217;t get from the national chains,&#8221; Fink added. &#8220;We bring a lot of expertise and we&#8217;ll come out to your facility and help you with a problem. And that&#8217;s something that an online company can&#8217;t or won&#8217;t do. That additional service is the personal touch.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">The Pennsylvania Paper and Supply Company tower on Vine Street in Scranton has a Dunder Mifflin logo on one side and the Penn Paper sign on other sides. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_TTL040616papersupply1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>The Pennsylvania Paper and Supply Company tower on Vine Street in Scranton has a Dunder Mifflin logo on one side and the Penn Paper sign on other sides. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_TTL040616papersupply2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Pennsylvania Paper and Supply Company president Douglas Fink is the third generation owner and president of the business, which started in 1922. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_TTL040616papersupply2-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Pennsylvania Paper and Supply Company president Douglas Fink is the third generation owner and president of the business, which started in 1922. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>drosengrant@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Dave Rosengrant at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @tldrosengrant</p></shirttailMeta></div>

PA Paper and Supply Co. in Scranton has long, family and television tradition