Staples Rewards Program Rocks, I'll Be Drinking Off My Rewards Points For Days...

Photo, blog post by John Hoff

There are very few customer "loyalty rewards" programs I like or make use of; the majority want way too much loyalty in exchange for too little reward. But the office supply chain called Staples may have won me over.

I'm a fanatical recycler in a lot of ways. I'm not a perfect recycler, but somehow that only increases my fanaticism. As one result of my recycling fanaticism, I've gotten in the habit of turning empty ink cartridges over to Staples simply because this is a way to properly recycle the cartridges. 

I never really thought much about regaining some actual value...

But the whole time, Staples was issuing me credit. Today, for no particular reason, I decided to create a profile at Staples.com and try to obtain my points. 

Huh.

Eight bucks. Sitting there in my dormant profile, like change in the ashtray of a car parked for months in an impound lot, was an entire eight bucks.

I printed out my coupon (it wasn't hard at all, and naturally I had a working ink cartridge) and went to a local Staples store. I wondered if all kinds of restrictions might be on the coupon which would prohibit me from buying two 12-packs of Diet lemon Nestea at $3.99 apiece.

Nope. Just like cash. Because there was no tax on the purchase, I received a refund coupon for TWO CENTS. I joked with the cashier that since the eight bucks was from redeeming ink cartridges, this was going to be oddly like...

Drinking two twelve packs of ink cartridges.

Pictured above, the beverages I'll be using to drink away my weekend. 

Staples Rewards, I'm a cynic but you've won me over.