2008 marks the One Hundredth continuous year that 2225 Shattuck Avenue has been the home of Berkeley's office supply retailer,
first as Radston’s then as ALKO.

We think the story is interesting and noteworthy, so here it is:

In late 1908 Clifford B. Radston and his wife Beatrice opened their new stationary/office supply/book/party goods store (Radston's Office Supply) at 2225 Shattuck Avenue in a building that he had purchased from the local utility company. Apparently the utility company built the brick building to house light standards and then changed its plans.

For the next 36 years Mr. & Mrs. Radston’s business served Berkeley. Slowly the primary goods that they sold changed; office supplies 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.

In 1944 Mr. Radston and his wife Beatrice decided to retire.  They retained possession of their building at 2225 Shattuck Avenue for income but sold the business to Merlin Drucquer and left Berkeley.  But Mr. Radston quickly grew restless with retirement, and when, in 1954, the new owners of "Radston's" decided to move to a larger space on the corner (where Baja Fresh is now), Mr. Radston decided to reopen his business in his building.  He called it "Cliff Radston Company".  When the owners of Radston's objected to the use of his name, he agreed to a DBA of "ALKO office supply", named for his son-in-law, Al Koch who would be the heir to the reopened business.

Cliff Radston passed away in 1965; Mr. Koch and his wife Shirley Radston Koch had been running the business for a number of years and continued to do so.  They experienced good and bad times; one bad time was during the construction of the BART tunnel in front of the store when business came to a virtual standstill.  After completion of the BART system, they slowly recovered and began to specialize even more in office supply products industry.  They focused on customer service and catered primarily to the needs of 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 mainly to direct the company's financial matters.  Later Claudia Erne came on board in charge of the commercial sales and purchasing operations.  With Al Koch’s support and encouragement, Gary purchased the business in 1984 and the building in 2000.  Mr. Koch died in 1994 and Shirley Radston Koch passed in 2005.  Gary 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 who is (since 1998) in charge of our delivery services. Last but not least, Irish born Andrew Allen is an important staff member who directs our retail sales operation.

Under Gary's guidance ALKO has nurtured the company's reputation for being a knowledgeable, honest and friendly organization.  Gary is enthusiastic about the company’s future and he hopes to turn the 2225 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley tradition over to a fourth generation of local ownership.  He says that another 100 years would be quite nice!