Finding the Best Prices
We have an HP laser printer in our office that we have been using for years. It was my printer at an old job and when I quit they let me take it with me for our web design business. While it has been a great printer, it is so old that when Matt went to buy ink for it this week they wanted over $100. (Anyone besides me get annoyed when replacement ink costs the same or more than you paid for the printer?) The accountant in me could not stomach putting that much money into ink for a 10+ year old printer. I suggested it would make more sense to buy something new for that price.
Tasked with finding a great laser jet all in one printer in the $100 dollar range I hit the internet and started searching. After lots of research I settled on the Brother HL-2280DW and then began researching the best price. Amazon had it for $130 but most local stores were selling it for $200. Then I found it on sale at Staples for the same $130 that Amazon was offering and they had it in stock for pick up. Perfect, I had a $10 off a $75 purchase for Staples so this would be a great deal.
Staples Price Match Guarantee
As long as I was going to Staples I decided I should pick up some additional office supplies that were getting low. I needed a spindle of blank DVD-R, a Dymo label tape cartridge, and black and color ink for our inkjet printer. As I got to comparing prices I found that Amazon was quite a bit cheaper than Staples on all of the items that we needed, but we would have to wait for shipping. Then it dawned on me that Staples offers Price Match Guarantee. Their website says “Staples will price match items sold by any retailer who sells products in both retail stores and online under the same brand; we will also match those that are sold and shipped by Amazon.com.” This sounded too good to be true so I called the store. “Will you really price match Amazon?” I asked. Their answer was yes!
When Matt got to Staples they had every item we needed in stock, and they priced matched everything to the Amazon prices. They even found a cheaper price on one of the items and gave us the lower price. As if this wasn’t enough, they had a 15% coupon at the register. It was a better deal than our $10 off coupon and they let us use it on the printer taking an additional $20 off. This brought the $200 printer down to $110.
Office Supplies Savings of 37.5%
On this one shopping trip of 5 items we saved over $125 which was a savings of 37.5%. This makes me want to shop at Staples all of the time. Knowing that I can go to one store, get items the same day, and get the best prices is an easy choice. We also have a Staples card so we get 5% back on our purchases. This just makes great business sense.
If you need office supplies or equipment I would recommend checking Staples website to see if they have it in stock, checking out their latest coupons, and then finding the best price for price matching. When you make your purchase don’t forget to give them your Staples rewards number for your 5% cash back.
Happy shopping and enjoy your savings!
Jade Stanley
Vice-President
Oasis Interactive, Boise, ID
The Boise Website and Branding Specialists
*A few details to be aware of:
- They do have to look the item up on Amazon and verify so be prepared to wait for a few minutes. Also prices change fast so it is possible that the price may have changed since you looked it up.
- The Amazon prices must be items that are Sold by Amazon not a 3rd party. Items sold by a 3rd party but delivered by Amazon do not count. I did see one of the items I wanted was listed as being sold by a 3rd party but when you looked at “More buying choices” on the right it listed Amazon as a seller so I could use that price.
- Coupons are taken off of the price before price match. If we had tried to use a coupon on the price match items it wouldn’t have provided any value. In our case the printer price already matched Amazon. We could use the coupon on that item since we were not price matching that item.