The first stationery stores in the city were created mainly by European entrepreneurs; the most famous stationery stores were "Al libro mayor" created in 1832 by a family of French origin, although it was eventually bought by the Fernandez family, who invited several young Spaniards to work with them and who after learning the business decided to open their own stationery stores, that is how "La Helvetia" and "Galas de Mexico" were born.
La Helvetia was located on Calle del Coliseo Viejo 21, the street we know today as 16 de Septiembre, and sold paper, foreign envelopes, white cards, stationery, wallets, pens, various stickers, wine from the house of Brandenburg Freres de Bordeaux and even tea, but mainly they were dedicated to printing and binding. Thus, since the 1800's, downtown Mexico City became the paper center, a fact that remains to this day, despite the fact that it is now very common to find stationery stores in every neighborhood and the existence of large stationery and office supply stores.
Nowadays, in downtown Mexico City, especially on the streets of República del Salvador and Mesones, colored pencils, notebooks, stickers, post its and all kinds of school supplies are part of the landscape. Right on the corner of Mesones and Jesús María is La Reyna de Mesones, a stationery store that started in 1986 under the name of "La Pequeña" and two years later changed its name to "La Reyna de Mesones", also on this street you can visit Marchand, one of the oldest stationery stores on the street, since 1951 it offers all kinds of stationery, office and similar products.
Despite the passage of time, one of the products that continues to be sold in stationery stores with great success are monographs or prints. The first company to produce monographs was Ediciones BOB, José Antonio Blanco Leal, who started his business with some cargo trucks on República del Salvador Street, in the Historic Center, in this street most of the merchants were dedicated to buy waste paper to resell it later. But in the 60's, he started with the production of monographs, because he had seen similar products in Spain and thought it would be a good idea to bring them to Mexico, so for the last 50 years they have become an essential part of the stationery stores.
In the street of Mesones today you can not only find these classic and super useful and basic items; since a few years ago Korean and Chinese stationery have become popular and there are not only students and moms buying supplies, we can also find people of all ages buying washi tapes with different designs, stickers and erasers that make you want to never use. So, despite the use of technology, school supplies and materials are still important and if you like these things, visiting Mesones is a must.
And although the center of the CDMX has always been the place where many merchants are concentrated, throughout the city there are still neighborhood stationery stores that have been a point of reference, such as the stationery store "La Esperanza" or "La Casa Olivo" in Azcapotzalco that for more than 50 years have been the place where children find everything for their homework. Tell us which is the stationery store in your neighborhood?