Step 1 : Introduction to the question "What common office supply item did Gimbel's Department Store in New York first sell Oct. 29, 1945?"
Gimbel's Department Store ran big ads all over the New York the day before they first offered this new writing instrument for sale. The ballpoint pen came with a guarantee to write for two years without needing a refill. The store was a madhouse, with people scrambling over each other to get their own ballpoint pen. The store's initial offering of 10,000 pens, going for $12.50 each, sold out by the end of the day. Two Hungarian brothers were the first to invent the ballpoint pen and produce them in their factory in Australia. The ballpoint was first patented by John Loud in the U.S. in 1888, but he never actually produced any pens. Today, ballpoint pens generate annual sales of nearly $21 billion. Source: HistoricAmerica.net