Staples Has More Than Staples

If someone gave you a $200 gift card to go shopping at Staples what would you buy? Some staples? Paper clips and some highlighters?

You could do that, but as I quickly discovered after the nice folks from Staples and the LA Moms Blog gave me a gift card to go buck wild with, there's a whole lot more you can get at your local Staples store than just staples!

My first foray into Staples happened the day after my gift card arrived in the mail. My laptop cord somehow got killed by my children and wouldn't power my computer. I called Dell and they said that since my laptop model's been discontinued I might have to wait three weeks to get a new cord. Radio Shack didn't carry it, various online outlets looked totally skeevy - and I was about to have a nervous breakdown.

But then inspiration (or was it desperation?) hit! Laptop cords are kinda office-y so I decided to call Staples up to see if they had them. It turns out that Staples has a kick-butt tech department! You can take your computer there and they'll install software, get rid of malicious spy ware or even get stuff off a dead hard drive.

The tech guy at my local Staples, Chandu, rocked the house. He had me come in so he could look at my laptop to figure out the right cord to buy. Chandu not only ordered me a new Dell cord that would work on my laptop (and arrive in TWO days) he also taped up my old cord so in the meantime I could still power my laptop!

While Chandu was taping up my cord, I wandered around the store and discovered that I could buy printers, cameras, mp3 players, and personal DVD players at Staples. This was WAY beyond the boxes of binder clips and legal pads I'd envisioned. Not only that, they also have huge cases of toilet paper, microwaves, hand soap, cleaning supplies, 50-count boxes trash bags, and huge containers of trail mix at Staples. It was like being in Costco, except there were no crazy lines and I didn't need a special card for anything.

I was most interested in the gadgets but I never buy anything without researching it first, so I wrote down the stuff I wanted: mp3 players and and a portable DVD player for my sons. Chandu suggested I wait till the Black Friday sales to get them and I'm glad I took his advice.

On Black Friday I snapped up a portable DVD player for $49 and two high-quality but dirt cheap mp3 players, one for each son. And yes, I also bought some paper clips, batteries, new pens, ink for my printer, and, ahem, a gigantic box of trash bags because I'm practical like that! -- The best part? Even with all that AND the laptop cord, I still have some money left on the gift card!

The awesome deals aside, the thing that will make me go back to Staples is the customer service. They earned an A+ for that. If I asked where something was, the employee actually walked me to where the item was. None of that pointing and saying, "Go look in aisle three," stuff. When I had questions, the staff really knew their products and I didn't get the vibe that they were trying to upsell me.

Added bonus: No one treated me like a shoplifter by asking to see my receipt when I was leaving the store.

I hope that customer service angle is one that's not unique to my local store. If Staples keeps that up, they'll should be just fine no matter what the economy brings.