Customer Review: Office Depot Teacher Appreciation Day

I got to Office Depot a little after 10:00 am for Teacher Appreciation Day.  From the get-go, it was much better than the Staples celebration.  I walked in to people cheering and saying "thank you" (seriously - not a lot of cheering, but some fuss every time a teacher walked in the door).  I signed in and was encouraged to apply for an Office Depot Teacher Rewards Card.  The card got me 10% in store discount for the day (I was fuzzy on the details, but it might always give that reward!) and 5% rewards for the day.  Every quarter, Office Depot mails a gift card to rewards teachers with 1% of their spent value back.  Cool!  Considering I have a really hard time figuring out how to claim my Staples rewards, this is pretty awesome.

After I was given my card and my gift pack, I was encouraged to sign up for a financial consultation to take place next week.  If I show up for my appointment, I get a $50 Office Depot gift card!  If I actually take whatever ghetto financial services they offer me after my consultation, I'll get another card for $75 on top of that!  I'll probably go for the $50 card but I know I won't be signing up for financial services.

I was then handed the "Taking Care of Business" year-long coupons for teachers booklet, which had a lot of high-value coupons that last for one month (from September - August, so none were usable today) and a 10% off purchase of $50+ coupon.  Since I already had a 10% off $40+ coupon, I saved the new coupon for another day.  Another 10% off $40+ printed as a Register Reward when I made my purchase, so I got $20 in cashback savings just for showing up!  

Then I was invited down to a continental breakfast (and proudly passed on donuts and bagels, having only coffee and sticking to my back-to-school diet!) and helped by a wonderful employee to find everything I had written down on my list (based on sale items).  He threw me a couple of freebies and overrode the store limits to help me get enough of everything I needed for my classroom.

There was also a different raffle every 15-20 minutes, but unfortunately I didn't win anything.  Some of the raffle items were electric sharpeners, electric staplers, gift cards and a backpack full of goodies.  Every teacher got one free raffle ticket when they came in, and all drawings were from the same pot.

It was a lovely experience and I had fun.  I hung around for all the drawings, even though I was done shopping, and I chatted up some other teachers.  It was really well organized and everyone was super helpful and nice.

As for my gift bag, in addition to the coupons, teachers were gifted with:

--1 reusable tote bag ($1.00 value)

--1 plastic folder ($0.39 value)

--4 #2 pencils ($0.50 value, estimate)

--1 Crayola erasable colored pencil (sample from company - no value)

--2 Expo dry erase markers ($2.00 value)

--1 mini legal pad ($0.50 value)

--1 DVD-R ($1.00 value)

--1 3M poster stickies ($1.69 value)

--1 Fold-It Ruler ($2.00 value)

Total value was about $8.50, which is less than the Staples gift, but when you factor in breakfast, coupons, rewards and 10% full store sale, it was a much better deal for a teacher to go to Office Depot than to Staples for Appreciation Day.  Everyone at Office Depot was absolutely lovely and I'm glad to have discovered this store for school supplies.