Professionally printed materials can really set your business apart from the rest. When representing your business to customers, or potential customers, you want to be seen in the best light; high-quality printed materials are a good step in the right direction. Sometimes — especially for new small-business owners such as myself— professionally printing just isn’t in the budget. But, I have written this post to share a great way to save money on printing at Office Depot or Office Max (they are now owned by the same company) using a Store Purchasing Card (US only).
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning I may receive a small commission, at NO ADDITIONAL cost to you, from purchases made using the links provided.
If you don’t currently have an affordable way to print, you may not have brainstormed all the things you could get printed. Here is a list of a few things you can get printed at Office Depot. There is so much more Office Depot’s printing department can do for you, this is just a short list to get the wheels turning and put your mind in “printing mode” ????
- Wrap labels (Free sheet of wrap labels go out to all my subscribers EVERY WEDNESDAY! If you haven’t already, go ahead and subscribe so you can get those freebies!)
- Product labels
- Packaging inserts
- Happy Mail stickers
- Thank you stickers
- Etsy orders
- Invoices
- Invitations
- Valentines day cards
- Tags
- Signs for craft fairs
- Crochet patterns
- Color charts
There are lots of benefits to having your materials professionally printed vs printing them yourself. First, you will never run out of ink. That always seemed to happen to me right when I needed to print something the most. Also, you will never run out of paper. Office Depot is always stocked with paper, cardstock, sticker sheets, label sheets etc. Not to mention it will save you a ton of time, instead of sitting at your printer watching each sheet slowly print out, you can have Office Depot print them for you and contact you when they are ready to be picked up. Now that I’ve told you all these awesome reasons why you would want professionally printed materials, let’s get into the HOW; How to get them at an affordable price!
If you text ECTCSPC to 555-888 you will immediately get a Store Purchasing Card texted back to you. On that card is the number you will need when you go to get things printed at Office Depot. You can just save it on your phone from there, or you can save the image below if you are not comfortable texting ECTCSPC to 555-888.
Email files to your local Office Depot printing department
This is my go-to method when I need to get something printed. First, you will need to get your Office Depot’s printing department’s email address. My Office Depot has a stack of business cards on the counter at the printing department that has their email on it. You can either go to your Office Depot and pick up one of those cards, or you could probably just call them and say you need the email for the printing department and they should give it to you.
Next, you will need to create your email. Mine usually looks something like this…
Hi. I need to get 25 copies (how many I need) of this file in full color (color or black and white) on cardstock (paper type) please. Thank you so much and have a great day.
SPC# 8012 674 1735
Ashley
Make sure to attach your file, I sometimes forget that bit and have to send ANOTHER email lol. If you need to print more than one file you can explain exactly what you need in the email. Like
“25 copies of File A in full color on cardstock. 30 copies of File B in full color on regular computer paper. And the 35 page PDF document “document name” to be printed in black and white on regular paper”
Just be specific and detailed so there’s little room for error. Always include the SPC number in the email. If you forget, when you go to pick up your order they will have to recalculate your total; it’s more of a hassle than it sounds like it would be lol. It happened to me once.
After that, you will get an email when your order is ready to be picked up. Go to your Office Depot’s printing department and tell them you are picking up an order, they’ll ask you your name, then they’ll check you out! It’s super simple.
Print from your email, another online site, or a jump-drive
You can also physically go to the store and pull up your files if you have them stored somewhere online, like in your email or dropbox etc. I usually use this method when I need to print out my Etsy orders. They have computers available there for you to use but they’re probably really old and slow, so plan for that. Also, if they’re busy, you might see a line of people waiting to use the computers.
If you do use this method, be sure to LOG OUT of all your accounts before leaving. Other people do use those computers, and you wouldn’t want them having access to any personal information.
Be sure to let them know you have an SPC number before they ring you up and you’re good to go!
Stickers, Labels, etc.
If you want to print on specialty paper, like stickers or labels. You can go to Office Depot, pick out the paper you want off the shelf, and just hand it to the printing department employee. They can print your files on the paper you choose, then when you check out you will pay for the pack of paper and the print job all in one swoop. You may need to know which paper you are going to print on beforehand, so you can design your stickers (or whatever it is your designing) accordingly. Different brands of sticker paper will require different formatting of your design. You can also take in your own paper to have your files printed on! Sometimes you can find it cheaper on Amazon.☺ Just make sure that your paper is for laser printers, which is what Office Depot uses, as it is different from inkjet paper.
Here are a few FYI’s and tips I’ve picked up, just from trial and error.
- Full-color Cardstock prints are 0.25 a sheet (normally 0.69).
- Full-color regular paper prints are 0.22 a sheet.
- Black and white prints on regular paper are only 0.03. ????
- Office Depot uses laser printers, not inkjet.
- You can not print copyrighted images (like Mickey Mouse, Paw Patrol, etc.)
- You can get labels, cards or whatever your printing, cut apart at Office Depot for a small fee. (this can save you a lot of time though)
- There is a small white border around the page when you print at Office Depot, you will want to keep that in mind when you are designing your items. I think its about a quarter inch.
- The cardstock paper they use is 110lb cardstock and is great quality.
- Send your files in a PDF or Word format. They can not pull up files saved from Pages (Apple’s version of Word)
- You can get stuff laminated at Office Depot.
- Office Depot uses Laser printers, not Ink Jet printers.
There is SO MUCH more Office Depot’s printing department can do for you and/or your business. They can make business cards, foam signs, banners, canvas prints, pictures, booklets and more! I just don’t know much about those services because I haven’t used them.
Here is an SPC number FAQ pdf if you still have some questions regarding the SPC number provided in this post.
I hope you found this post useful and start saving a ton of money on your printing needs. You can also use the SPC number for other things in the store as well, so always give it to your cashier before checking out! If you use the SPC number and save some money, comment on this post and let me know about it! I love hearing that I helped someone out and this whole post wasn’t for nothing.???? Also, this SPC number is unlimited in the number of people who can use it. Share this info with your fellow business owners, friends, family, local business owners, your church, anyone you can think of that might shop at Office Depot or could use the savings on printing!
❤ Ashley