Where I live there are about three big office stores. Staples, Office Depot and Office Max and they all have the same red logo. I've been inside all of them and I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference if there were no signs. I think they are useful for office supplies and furniture but if I was buying electronics I would go somewhere else. One complaint I have is that they never seem to have enough registers. I was just at Staples and there were three but only two were open. They do have good sales though, and their stores are usually quiet and empty.
I prefer Office Depot when I'm buying office supplies. I prefer Staples for copying services and buying toner for my printer. Fortunately, both stores are about two blocks apart. It's hard to find an Office Max in my area. I do agree that they are practically the same. If I had to choose just one, it would be Staples because I have been shopping with them the longest and I really shopping via their website.
I don't think there is much of a difference, even though in the previous office I worked at I was one of the responsible people to get supplies and Office Depot never had everything we needed. We usually used Staples. One time Staples actually left our package outside the door after work hours and someone took it. We let them know and 24 hours after that we had a new package. I thought it was wrong of them to leave the package unattended like that without warning anyone, but they were quick to repair the issue.
I'll grant you there isn't too much of a difference..not that you'd necessarily expect there to be when the focus is the same and such a narrow one. Still, I do think Staples has the slight advantage in that they offer better services than office depot and the others I've been to. Honestly, I end up doing most of my shopping for that kind of thing online these days, though, and it's just as easy to avoid it altogether by going to Amazon.
Where I live staples is the main office store but even that isn't that major. We don't really have office stores here in the UK. Just small stationery shops like Rymans and Staples
I really can't tell the difference between any of the office supply stores. They all have the same stuff. I find the art supply section at Office Depot to be better than the art supply section at Office Max because they have Prismacolor premium markers and Staedler watercolor pencils. Office Max has a lot of student grade Crayola junk, not real art supplies that a designer or artist would use.
To me, they're pretty much the same. Watching the sales ads will clue you in to where you can find the best deals on a certain week.
I think it depends on the store itself as far as everyday items go. For a long time, OfficeMax was hard to find in my area and until they were recently merged with Office Depot, their selection was not as great. However, for the person running a small business, I'd have to say that OD has some advantages. For one, they participate in programs to help small businesses get off the ground (this was a few years ago so I don't know if it's still in effect) and their website has a lot of helpful resources that act as a guide for almost any stage of running a business.
I used to love them back in the 90's and early 2000's, but now I hardly ever step foot in them anymore. About 15 years ago, I joined a group of people to start up a small online school. The office space we leased happened to be right by a bunch of stores including OfficeMax and Staples, so we would run over there quite often to pick up supplies (especially when we needed a little "break" from the office). This was also around the time I had just moved out on my own as well, so I was furnishing my own personal office at my place in addition to the offices in our building. I never really paid a whole lot of attention to the prices, because we were buying everything with the company cards - and my boss and some of my coworkers were quite fond of the good pens and other nicer supplies, lol, so we all splurged. But for shopping for myself now, I did noticed their stuff seems rather high these days. Also their selection is rather poor. They have a really limited selection of computers and tablets, and a lot of their other accessories look very outdated. I have a better time ordering this type of stuff online instead.
I mostly buy any office supplies off Amazon, but when I do go into a office store, I prefer going into Staples. The Office Depot we have here is kind of awful, the employees don't care, and they never have what you need. Staples is kind of expensive, but they always have want you need, and the employees in mine are least polite and semi helpful.
Here, in Mazatlan, we have Office Depot and Office Max (though their sign is yellow, not red like Office Depot). I shop at both because each store is a little different. Lamination supplies are way cheaper at Office Depot and they carry a better of selection of accessories for your cell phone/electronics. They seem to be the best place to buy that sort of stuff. Office Max has cheaper writing utensils and a better selection of non-copy paper. In Calgary, the two Office Depot stores I knew of have closed down. There is a choice between Staples and Grand and Toy. Grand and Toy is extremely expensive and I think they are having to close down some of their stores to avoid bankruptcy. Staples there is cheaper than both Office Depot and Office Max here so I tend to bring stuff back with me.
Most of the times what we start preferring is something or a store that suits us and at the same time remains good when its about getting better specifically.So i keep changing my mind regarding how something should be working for me i do not stick to a single source all the time but yeah Amazon is my preference most of the time.
