NationStates Jolt Archive


Does Jesus keep your printer working?

New Isabelle
03-03-2006, 17:50
Originally from CNN.com

Jesus Ink
Monks serve God by selling toner.
By Christine Y. Chen
March 3, 2006: 9:49 AM EST


SPARTA, WIS. (FORTUNE Small Business Magazine) - Like many entrepreneurs, Father Bernard McCoy loves to talk about his industry. But as a Cistercian monk, he has a time frame longer than most.

"Nine hundred years ago my brothers were making ink, making their own paper, and copying manuscripts," says McCoy. "We were the original social entrepreneurs. We were the first multinationals."


The LaserMonks.com management team

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McCoy is CEO of LaserMonks.com, an Internet retailer that sells discounted printer cartridges and other office supplies. Customers include individuals and churches, along with giants such as Morgan Stanley (Research) and the U.S. Forest Service. It's a lucrative business. Sales have risen from $2,000 in 2002, the company's first full year of operation, to around $2.5 million in 2005.

LaserMonks.com is a for-profit subsidiary of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, an eight-monk monastery in the hills of Monroe County, 90 miles northwest of Madison. The Spring Bank brethren wear robes, sing Gregorian chants, and eat their meals in silence.

"We're monks," McCoy says cheerfully. "We do monk things."

Like all Roman Catholic monasteries, the abbey is responsible for its own upkeep, receiving no financial support from the Vatican. Hence LaserMonks.com. Father McCoy estimates that it costs around $150,000 to maintain the abbey and its 500 acres of grounds. The rest of the company's profits help support charities that range from a camp for kids with HIV to a Buddhist orphanage in Tibet.

The idea for LaserMonks.com came to Father McCoy one day when his printer ran out of ink. He shopped around for a new ink cartridge but couldn't find one that was reasonably priced. That's because printer manufacturers make most of their money by imposing stratospheric markups on printing supplies. As a result thousands of small companies were cropping up all over the Internet, selling reconditioned ink and toner cartridges. Despite legal challenges from the established printer manufacturers, the industry is now firmly established.

In the beginning LaserMonks.com consisted of a few monks sitting around with black powder and empty plastic cartridges, filling a few orders a day. Today the monks say they have served more than 50,000 customers, and process 200 to 300 daily orders for a broad range of school and office supplies.

The website also accepts online prayer requests.

And in a fiercely competitive commodity industry, McCoy and his brethren have thrived on the sheer novelty of their story. The company spends relatively little money on advertising, benefiting instead from media coverage and McCoy's frequent speaking engagements around the country.

Father McCoy recently started selling printers, cables, and surge protectors, and plans to offer a full line of office electronics later this year. He expects LaserMonks.com's 2006 sales to exceed $5 million.

"We could develop a franchise system for other abbeys," he says. "I think we could become the Amazon.com (Research) of social entrepreneurs."



Found this via email link from a guy I work with who will only order his ink from them...
Kryozerkia
03-03-2006, 17:58
I keep MY printer working... Jesus just cleans the pool down stairs... :D
Philosopy
03-03-2006, 18:01
I believe many Christians might object to your description of Jesus as 'it' on the poll. :p
New Isabelle
03-03-2006, 18:14
I believe many Christians might object to your description of Jesus as 'it' on the poll. :p


OOOO- didn't even catch that!! Freudian slip?? Who knows? I've got my flame-retardent poncho on so its all good
Eraig
03-03-2006, 18:16
he might do............... ;)
RetroLuddite Saboteurs
03-03-2006, 18:27
I believe many Christians might object to your description of Jesus as 'it' on the poll. :p
sure the sexual orientation of jesus has been the subject of much spectulation, but that's no reason to call him an it... if jesus came back today, would he be able to get cpr in west virginia?
New Isabelle
03-03-2006, 18:35
sure the sexual orientation of jesus has been the subject of much spectulation, but that's no reason to call him an it... if jesus came back today, would he be able to get cpr in west virginia?

Well, let's say I uh... left it up to the poster to decide for themselves whether Jesus was a he/she/or imaginary character... yeah, I was practicing, uh- tolerance! yeah...
Trotskytania
03-03-2006, 19:10
Good for them and good for them for spreading the profits around to others in need.

This is actually one religious financial endeavour of which I can approve.
New Canadonia
03-03-2006, 19:18
Burn It To The Ground!
Free United States
03-03-2006, 19:31
everything has a Jesus bolt. So, probably...^_^

note: a Jesus bolt is the mystical part of an airplane that keeps the whole contraption together
Kroisistan
03-03-2006, 19:33
Well, I've done a pseudo-exorcism on my printer a few times, and I've used Jesus's name... so I guess he could be keeping my printer working...
Luporum
03-03-2006, 19:35
My printer won't even turn on, so I turn my back to Christianity until it does.