https://www.staples.com/mem/rewards-plus
Some background. In the summer Staples changed their Staples Rewards program:
- Removed the Plus tier, so to recycle 20 carts/mo you need to reach $1000 in annual spend and be upgraded to Premier. Previously it was enough to spend $500/yr to recycle 20 carts/mo.
- Changed the minimum order requirement for free shipping. It used to be pretty easy (I don’t remember if there even was a minimum, but it was low), now free shipping requires a minimum order of $49.99.
They are advertising a sale on what I believe is a new rewards program called Staples Plus. Normally it’ll cost $59/yr, but from 11/29 until 12/02 it’s on sale for $29. It:
- Allows you to recycle 20 carts/mo without meeting the $1000/yr spending level (but just like with Staples Rewards, you still need to spend $30 on ink within 180 days).
- Drops the minimum order for free shipping to $25.
- Has other benefits, like a ~5% discount on pretty much everything (I see discounts of up to 60% for higher margin products, like post-it notes and toilet paper). This discount is applied to the items in your cart if you have the Plus Membership in the cart, which was a nice surprise, especially considering the incompetence I’ve seen in their Rewards calculations.
- There’s also an additional 5%+ discount on 5 items of your choice (can pick 5 right away and change 1 of them every 90 days).
They didn’t have enough FAR deals this year (not enough that I found worth-while, anyway) and I won’t reach Premier, so I’m willing to pay $29 to get rid of my empty carts quicker. I probably won’t renew next year.