"A terrific example of the role of contingency in a new venture can be found in the history of Staples, the discount office supplies superstore. It was 1985, the Thursday before the July 4 holiday weekend in the US. Having recently lost his job working for a supermarket, Thomas Sternberg was formulating a business plan for a supermarket chain when he ran out of printer ribbon for his printer.
When he went to local stores to buy a new printer ribbon, he found either they didn't have the ribbon he needed, or the store had closed early for the holiday weekend. The simple information that printer ribbon was unobtainable triggered an idea for Sternberg. In a later interview with CNN, he said, "It dawned on me that not only could small entrepreneurs not get stationery at the rate of bigger companies—sometimes they couldn't get it at all.""