Marc Serafino
If you’re anything like me, you love visiting office supply stores, Staples being my number one choice. It’s not just paper and ink I buy there, but also other stuff for my home office that are frequently available with a deep discount — compared to what other stores are offering.
Beyond visiting their physical store, I also check out Staples.com for deals, cause they have something cool every single day. But I’m getting ahead of myself here — we have prepared some solid advice to help you with your Staples purchases. Here are…
9 Ways to Save Money at Staples
1. Take advantage of price matching
Staples offers great prices on a number of different products and is putting money behind that claim. If you bring an ad from another store, including Amazon.com, offering some item at a lower price — Staples will match it. This also applies to Staples’ own prices — if the price changes within 14 days of your purchase, they will refund the difference! This is applicable to both online and offline (at the store) purchases!
2. Watch out for daily and weekly deals
As mentioned each day, Staples has a different offer on its website so it’s worth your time to visit it regularly. Also, they have weekly ad deals that can be just as great. For instance, we know a guy who bought a 24-pack of Duracell AA batteries for just $6.99, instead of $19.99. That’s nothing short of amazing.
3. Browse the Clearance Deals
Another reason to frequently visit Staples’ website is its Clearance Deals section. Here you can find pretty much any item they want to move quickly. And that’s where you kick in to take advantage of their low prices on anything from office supplies and furniture to electronics.
4. Sign up for Staples’ Rewards program
And get 5% back on every purchase, as well as free shipping at Staples.com, and invites to special events. Also, as a member you get to participate in the ink cycling rewards that gets you $2 in rewards for each toner or ink cartridge you bring in to the store to recycle, as long as you have spent $30 on toner or ink in the past 6 months. You can recycle up to ten cartridges each month. Plus, there are Rewards specials that offer 20, 50 or 100 back in Rewards on items such as ink, paper, batteries, and more.
5. Step it up with the Plus or Premium level
Like Staples’ Rewards program isn’t already great, those spending more with Staples get to benefit even more. The Plus level includes everything the Base level has, plus free EasyTech Services, and Staples’ “Office on the Go” program, which is especially handy for those working on the go — aka mobile workers. Also, you get to earn 100 percent back in rewards, for up to $10 or $20 in the Premium Level, if you need to use Staples’ Copy & Print services such as shredding, scanning, getting online in store, editing a document, and so on. The Premier level adds instant discounts on copy and print services, double the time to redeem rewards (6 months vs. 3 months for other members) and access to exclusive events. Additionally, members of both Plus and Premium levels can recycle up to 20 cartridges per month.
6. Use Staples Easy Rebates
Unlike many rebates services, this one is easy to use. No long forms to fill and mailing back to the company. Upon checkout, you will receive a receipt and a rebate form with the rebate number. Then sign on to StaplesEasyRebates.com and submit your rebate number only to get your check within a month (or so). To make for an even sweeter deal, you will be eligible for rebates even if you’re using rewards and coupons. Pretty cool.
7. Buy pre-owned Staples gift cards
Use a service like Gift Card Granny or Raise to buy a pre-owned gift card for less and save 3 percent or so. Perhaps you could save even more, but at the time of writing this article those were the available savings for Staples gift cards. (Related: 7 Gift Card Hacks to Help You Save Money)
8. Try using coupons from competing stores
This one won’t work in every Staples store — it definitely won’t work offline — and you will have to speak with the store’s manager in order to get the better deal. Even that won’t guarantee a success, but you can try it, nonetheless. If you have coupons from Staples’ competitor such as Office Depot and OfficeMax ask whether you can use it on your Staples purchase. It just might work.
9. Keep up with Staples’ deals in your inbox and on social media
Sign-up for Staples’ newsletter and keep up with the company’s social media activities on Twitter and Facebook. This way you will learn first-hand about the latest deals. Also, Staples often send coupons via regular mail so make sure to sign-up for their “paper newsletter” as well. Their coupons apply to a range of different products, from office supplies to electronics, so you should be able to find something you need.
And there’s more…
We just don’t know it yet. But we have you, our reader, to ask for additional advice. Do you know some other trick for saving money at Staples, whether online or in one of their many stores? Don’t hesitate to share your know-how with our community — use the comments form below. Thanks. 😉
