Lisa Veeck looks at how the breakroom continues to evolve in the modern office environment
Back in simpler times, breakrooms consisted of a drip coffee machine, Styrofoam cups, sugar, powdered creamer and a water cooler. There was maybe a fridge that required a monthly cleanout to remove forgotten lunches. Furniture was nonexistent, as employees were expected to grab a cup of joe and return to their desks to work.
If you are a dealer selling breakroom supplies today, you’ll know the average breakroom has come a long way since then.
Beyond the basics
Traditional breakroom fare—such as coffee, granola bars, candy, popcorn, pretzels, chips and a variety of sodas and waters—are still the bread and butter of all the dealers we spoke with for this article. Yet some are venturing beyond the tried and true, including EZ Office Products (EZOP) in Madison, Wisconsin.
“We’ve found a breakroom supply sweet spot servicing companies that are big enough to have a cafeteria or other food service option, but not big enough to be serviced by Sysco or other large national foodservice wholesalers,” says vice president Gary Molz. “We got into this niche because we knew we could deliver a better service than our competitors. We are used to getting calls and delivering a box of pens by 9:00 am the next day, so we figured we’d use this same level of service in another category.”
While EZOP doesn’t go so far as to sell food, it supplies all the tangible fixings—from plates, cups and coffee stirs to napkins, flatware and takeout containers—with one stipulation: the products must be sustainable. “Our company is very sustainable itself,” explains Molz. “It’s our ethos; it’s who we are. We help our customers be more sustainable. If customers aren’t interested in being sustainable, they are not our customers.”
While sustainable products have long had a reputation for being more expensive, Molz insists this is not the case today. “Manufacturers have come a long way in developing sustainable options and the cost is close,” he claims. “The quality is also better.”
At Great River Office Products, St. Paul, Minnesota, vice president and sales director Dan Schmidt acknowledges that cost is a key factor for many customers in their breakroom supply choices: “People want cheaper generics instead of the more expensive brand names for things like paper plates and cups.” That said, he reports there are some name brands and other specialty items customers are willing to pay for: “We sell Keurig individual coffees; people don’t seem to care about the plastic. We also sell a lot of Bubbly water, all flavors of LaCroix and fruit juices, including cranberry, apple, pear and Tropicana. If customers want a unique product, we’ll bring it in for them.”
Strive Workplace Solutions, Portland, Oregon, enjoys annual sales of over $15 million, with breakroom accounting for between $750,000 and $1 million. In addition to packaged goods, the company previously offered fresh produce, but this business has evaporated since the pandemic. “We used to sell a lot of fresh fruit like strawberries and blueberries, but after COVID-19, people wanted them in 2 to 3-ounce single-serve containers,” explains Strive president Jeff Lurcook. “We aren’t set up to do that at a price customers would be willing to pay. We offer Green Rabbit products through Essendant, including frozen food like frozen pizza and pretzels. Customers order it through our website and Green Rabbit ships it direct with no logo, so it looks like it all goes through us. The newest items we offer are Twinkies and Hostess cupcakes.”
Other customers are looking for products that Strive can’t sell. “Beer and wine are very popular in breakrooms in some of the more progressive companies,” says Lurcook. “One customer has beer and wine on tap. They have to get those themselves, though, because we are not licensed to sell alcohol.”
At Walker’s Office Supplies of Rocklin, California, some breakroom sales trends have shifted post-pandemic. While bottled water is a traditional breakroom staple, the way it is supplied has changed since COVID-19.
“We sell to a lot of construction sites, where they used to order those five-gallon, orange coolers bottles of water,” says president and co-owner Jarrod Anderson. “Now, they need individual bottles. We just sold nine pallets of Crystal Geiser to a customer this week. A pallet holds 84 cases of 24 bottles each.”
The company’s coffee offering also takes a different twist. “We partner with a local coffee roaster that brews a coffee exclusively for Walker’s,” explains Anderson. “It’s high quality and we private label it with both our names.”
Like Strive, while Walker’s sees some companies offering alcohol in their breakrooms, it is not licensed to sell it. But that’s not the most unusual breakroom product Anderson recalls receiving a request for: “It was baby formula—and we got it!”
Getting comfortable
Since the pandemic ended, companies have been trying to entice people back into the office by giving their breakrooms a glow-up, transforming them into hotspots for both collaboration and relaxation. “One of our customers even has a coffee shop,” reports Schmidt. “For furniture, Great River customers are buying higher seating, furniture with data ports and more tables and booths that allow people to talk and collaborate or sit and have some privacy. We are seeing a lot of polymesh and more stone and natural wood. More customers are also going for brighter colors like florescent orange and green—colors that look fresh and welcoming.”
Lurcook agrees that this trend is continuing into 2025: “We’ve been seeing cleaner and more modern-looking breakrooms, with lighter colors. We are seeing a lot of white and chrome, including white countertops. For furniture, instead of darker wood, we are seeing more of what I call driftwood, the lighter gray.”
At Walker’s, it’s a similar story. “People want to provide a more robust environment for clients and staff, especially in California where you have companies like Google and Facebook,” observes Anderson. “They want to jazz up the breakroom to provide a place to escape work for a minute. They want furniture in more vibrant colors, including ones that tie in with their company colors.”
And in Walker’s case, helping customers brighten their breakrooms even extends to artwork. “We try to use local photographs and put them on canvas,” continues Anderson. “For one bank with regional branches, we took photos from their local areas to give them a hometown feel.”
Meeting the challenges
Molz acknowledges that stocking and selling food breakroom supplies can be tricky: “It’s not like office products—snacks like chips and pretzels are challenging to source direct when you are not buying a pallet. Most have a two-week shelf life and many chips change monthly. Also, the food industry makes things at certain times of the year, so manufacturers don’t necessarily have what is on our website when we need it. With office products, the customer creates a PO and we fill it. Many snack manufacturers are used to selling to retail stores where they just put what they have on the shelves to sell. They don’t understand we presell to our customers what they need. So, the manufacturers will fill and ship what they can; if the customer orders 10 items, the manufacturer will just ship the eight it has in stock. This leaves us scrambling to fill the rest of the order because the customer is used to our office product service. Stocking things like granola bars is also challenging because people are used to the plethora of options at the grocery store. We considered partnering with a grocery store and doing Instacart, but it’s not profitable.”
For EPOZ, supplying customer events is one solution to the short shelf-life problem. “We are local and very rooted in the community,” Molz elaborates. “We service a lot of nonprofits, like our local United Way. They don’t use many office products, but we found we can help them buy things like water and snacks for their events. Sourcing from us is far more efficient for them than trying to source 50 cases of water and 1,000 bags of chips from wherever they can get them. A lot of businesses have events for their employees. It’s easier for them to order from us than go to Costco or Sam’s Club to get what they need themselves. Convenience saves money and goes to their bottom line.”
Meanwhile, Schmit reveals that some of the wholesalers’ breakroom offerings and pricing can fall short: “We sell a lot of popcorn, but wholesalers don’t carry the quantity. They also charge such a high price for some items that we are buying more direct from manufacturers.”
Schmit goes on to suggest that the wholesalers’ digital focus may be inadvertently impacting on sales. “I think S.P. Richards made a mistake in discontinuing its breakroom catalog,” he muses. “People liked to flick through it at their convenience and see things they might not have thought of or know we offer, versus having to use a computer. When they go online, they usually know what they want and order just those items.” He also suggests the demise of sales reps in the industry has been a retrograde step: “Keurig doesn’t have sales reps visit independent dealers anymore. They just send out an email blast.”
All of the dealers interviewed agree that while the threat from Amazon remains ever-present, when it comes to breakroom—as in other categories—it all boils down to service. “It’s a buzzword, but it’s all about the customer experience,” Lurcook summarizes. “Amazon can supply breakroom supplies, but it will leave them at the front desk with the receptionist. We know where everything goes and will put it away for them. We also rotate stock, moving dated items that will expire to the front.”
Getting started
For those contemplating a break into breakroom, Strive’s Lurcook advises: “This is a category you have to have, since office products are not going to keep you afloat. Extensive breakroom products are available, so try to meet your customers’ requests.”
EZOP’s Molz suggests: “Proceed slowly. Don’t look at the category like office products. It takes a lot of effort: the products change, which makes it hard for dealers with an office product mindset. But in the case of EZOP, we have committed to supplying breakroom. We think it is something we can do well. We just need to figure it out and how it fits into our distribution model. It’s up to us to figure out how we can efficiently get and distribute what the customer wants at a profit.”
Great River’s Schmidt also highlights the importance of a shift in perspective: “Think outside the box. Don’t assume customers don’t want to buy something because it costs a little more. In breakroom, it’s not about price; it’s about convenience. They know they can go pick it up themselves for less. They don’t want to, so push convenience.”
Walker’s Anderson has some practical counsel to share in conclusion: “Narrow what you sell in the category to make it easy for your sales reps and show them how to install things like the coffee brewers. Oh, and if you sell pallets of water, use two tie-downs. Nothing’s worse than having bottled water spill all over the road!”