The Story of 2225 Shattuck Avenue

2008 marked the one hundredth year that ALKO office supply or our predecessors at 2225 Shattuck Avenue in Downtown Berkeley have been serving East Bay Community!

In late 1908 Mr. Clifford B. Radston and his wife Beatrice opened their new stationary/office supply/book/party goods store (Radston's Office Supply) in a building at 2225 Shattuck Avenue that he had purchased from the local utility company. Apparently the utility company built the building to house light standards and then changed its plan, and did not need the building after all.

Over the next several decades the business continued through good and bad times. The primary goods that Cliff and Beatrice sold changed with the times, office supply goods eventually became the main staple of the business. In the 1930's they began offering free delivery to their customers. They added a "hanging" mezzanine to the building to increase its usable area.

Having worked hard and had some savings, their daughter was grown, so they decided to retire. They kept their building at 2225 Shattuck Avenue but sold their business and left town. Cliff quickly grew restless with his retirement and when the new owners of his "Radston's Office Supply" decided to move to a larger building he decided to return to Berkeley and reopen his business as Cliff Radston Company at 2225 Shattuck Avenue. When the owners of Radston's objected he agreed to call his business "ALKO office supply", named after his new son-in-law, Al Koch who would be the heir of the business.

After Cliff Radston's death, Mr. Koch and wife Shirley Radston Koch ran the business successfully for the next few decades. They also experienced good and bad times, one bad time was the construction of the BART tunnel in front of the store. They began to specialize even more in office supply products, and ceased selling books, party goods and most personal stationary. They focused the business on customer service catering primarily to businesses. They became known for their free, unrestricted delivery of their products and their direct and honest way of doing business.

Anticipating his own retirement, Al Koch employed Gary Shows in 1972. Gary had a background in wholesale office supplies and very quickly gained control of the day to day operations of the company. In 1974 Loretta Bauer joined the business to care the the company's financial matters and later Claudia Erne took charge of commercial sales and purchasing operations. Gary purchased the business in 1984 and the building in 2000. He continued the company's successful philosophy of offering unrestricted free delivery to local business and maintaining a permanent, knowledgeable and friendly staff. (Loretta and Claudia are still with ALKO today). Other permanent staff members include Claudia's spouse, Sergio Blandon is (since 1992) in charge of our delivery services. In his sixth year with ALKO, Irish born Andrew Allen is an important staff member who is in charge of our retail sales.

Under Gary's guidance ALKO has a strong Internet presence and has opened ALKO Specialty Store to sell high end supplies to customers all over the United States and most parts of the world. He has nurtured the company's reputation for being knowledgeable, honest and friendly.