The printer in my home office has decided it no longer wants to work with me. Sometimes it works, but mostly it doesn't. So on a recent weekend I went shopping for a new printer at four different stores. Would an office supply store have better options than Target? Does Best Buy beat out Staples for selection? Check out my findings after the jump…
Overall Shopping Experience: Target stores tend to be fairly clean and well stocked and that was my experience on this shopping excursion. The benefit of shopping for a printer here is that I could also purchase other household essentials.
Customer Service: The printers are located just two aisles over from the main Electronics department. There were a couple of Target associates at the cash register in the Electronics department who could offer assistance.
Brands & Quantity Offered: Canon (2), Kodak (1), Epson (4) and HP (5).
Display Quality: There were 13 printers on display, all lined up on one shelf that spanned the entire aisle. Printers in boxes ready to purchase were stocked near their display models. Of the 13 models on display, 11 were in stock and ready to purchase.
Lowest/Highest Prices: Prices ranged from $49.99 for the cheapest HP to $249.99 for an Epson.
Overall Shopping Experience: Walking into a Best Buy is a little like walking into a Vegas casino. The music and TV's are loud and there are a lot of flashing lights and other distractions. In other words, it can be a little overwhelming if you're going in to shop for only one item.
Customer Service: The printers were located near the Geek Squad area, which would have made it easy to get the attention of a store associate. However, I was never approached by an associate.
Brands & Quantity Offered: HP (14), Epson (6), Brother (6), and Canon (4) .
Display Quality: There were 40 printers on display spread across two aisles. One row of printers was a little difficult to access because it abutted the long line of folks waiting for Geek Squad. I had some difficulty locating boxed printers to purchase. From what I could tell, about 1/4 of the printers were not on the shelves to be purchased.
Lowest/Highest Prices: Prices ranged from $59.99 for a Brother to $279.99 for an Epson.
Overall Shopping Experience: The printer selection at Staples was pretty impressive, especially since they also offered a few wide format models. The store was clean and well stocked.
Customer Service: There were some Staples associates milling about but I was not approached for service. I could have flagged down an associate if I had questions.
Brands & Quantity Offered: Brother (13), Canon (7), Kodak (1), Epson (8) and HP (26).
Display Quality: A banner hanging over the printer section quickly lead me to it. There were 49 printers on display plus 5 wide format printers on a separate display. Prices were clearly marked.
Lowest/Highest Prices: Prices ranged from $59.99 for a Kodak to $499.99 for an HP.
Overall Shopping Experience: The OfficeMax I visited was fairly empty and the aisles are quite wide so it was easy to browse the printers. The music was pretty mellow (light rock) and the associates seemed friendly.
Customer Service: There were two OfficeMax associates in the vicinity of the printers but I was no approached for service.
Brands & Quantity Offered: Canon (10), HP (27), Brother (14), Kodak (2), Epson (12).
Display Quality: The banner hanging over the printers simply said "computers" so it took me a few minutes to find the printers. There were 65 printers on display, stretching across a few aisles. Pricing was clear, with special signage for discounted printers.
Lowest/Highest Prices: Prices ranged from $69.99 for a Brother to $449.99 for a Canon.
THE BEST PRINTER SHOPPING EXPERIENCEThe Best: Staples had the most impressive selection - they're the only store that stocked wide format printers. In addition to having the most models on display, they also had the most ready for purchase. The store was easy to shop and the prices were on par with the other stores I visited.
Runner Up: OfficeMax was a close runner up. The actual number of printers rivaled what Staples offered but the fact that they didn't have wide format printers earned them the runner up position. Their prices were also comparable to Staples and the store was organized and easy to shop.
(Images: Jason Loper)
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Why did all of these photos have filters on them? This is a review, not a house tour with kitty cats on cute pillows.
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Back on topic: I prefer Staples if I need ink ASAP, otherwise I use Amazon.
Microcenter <3 I bought a new Canon there on sale the other day.
I don't print much, so I tend to just grab a printer when Walmart is having its $20 printer sale. Since they are sooo cheap, its often more economical for me to just buy another $20 printer (and recycle the old one), rather than buying replacement ink cartridges. They hardly ever advertise these sales, you just have to keep checking the ends of the aisles in the Electronics Department, every time you're in Walmart.
Got ours -- a Brother laser printer -- off of Amazon. If you only need black and white, consider a laser printer. Unlike inkjet printers there's nothing to get clogged, and the toner lasts longer than an inkjet cartridge without drying out. Our printer was about $300 bucks 3 years ago, and still looks and functions like brand new. We use it fairly regularly, too.
Why bother? Let your fingers do the shopping on-line. The cost is less and the selection much greater.
Why bother? Let your fingers do the shopping on-line. The cost is less and the selection much greater.
Back in 2009, I upgraded m computer to a higher end Dell with Vista (64 bit version) and my printer at the time, a 5 YO HP all in one was already obsolete, why? HP decided not to support Vista, oh I could still use it, but lost all maintenance functionality, including the ability to monitor ink levels, and it would calibrate EVERY TIME I went to use it.
Plus, I wanted to be able to print nice photos, and centered 8x10's, which the HP's never could do, ever, and they tend to lop off some text when printing from online, at least the HP ones from work (their laser printers at that) and had already known what I wanted anyway, an Epson, specifically, the Artisan 810 inkjet model.
Finally, in the fall of that year, I broke down and upgraded. It turned out Best Buy had them on sale - and a full display stack in an isle and I drove to N. Seattle where the store was, went in, grabbed a box, went to the registered, paid for it, and out the door I went. Never looked back either as from now on, it's Epson all the way. Eventually, I'll get a wide format printer, one that can do, say 14-17" wide rolls. I've never had a problem with the heads clogging on mine, and it has the duplexer, document feeder, and the CD tray to print onto printable CD media directly, another feature I was after.
For anything larger, a dedicated print shop, for that kind of printing will do.
Why would people bother to go to a store for a printer unless they needed one right away? It should really be "go to Amazon or Newegg, compare pricing and reviews, and buy."
I'm in the market for a new printer. I appreciate this review/experience! Although I think I'm set on a HP laserjet and have found a few on Amazon.
I have purchased 8 Canon printers in the past 2 years (most of them are for a fundraising event called Help-Portrait) and I've gotten most of them from Amazon because of their pricing. The most recent printer purchase was made at Best Buy because I wanted to give it as a last minute gift that day AND the service person informed me that Best Buy price matches Amazon. Granted, you still have to pay taxes, but if it's something you want ASAP, it's not a bad deal. I've price matched ink, and a hard drive too. All I do is show them the Amazon page on my phone.
I love Best Buy, it's my toy store! It's sad, but they know me by name. Yes, over the years I've spent less and less time there because of digital media and online shopping, but there are times when I want to see the product before I buy it. I'm also a sucker for loyalty programs.
I don't really get these shopping experience reviews...
Not Apple. The HP printer they sold us with our $5000 mac didn't print once. Constantly said paper jam or out of ink-even when plugged in the first time!!! How can it have a paper jam when it never printed a single page!!!! When we tried to solve the problem...found everyone had the same issue. It went to a landfill and we purchased a simple ink jet that prints thousands of pages for my assignments and never had a problem.
HP should be out of business or sued for selling a product that doesn't work out of the box and Apple should be embarassed for selling that as a promotion with their product and should have stopped selling HP's all together after that fiasco.
I'm in the market for a printer right now (and also just new to the USA from Australia!) so I very much appreciate this shopping experience review - looks like Staples is the way to go. In the future a little more detail would be great, eg which store has lasers/colour lasers, what sort of peripherals are available (cables, toner or ink). Cheers, keep up the good work!
When I bought a printer, Target was really the only reasonable choice. 20 bucks for an Adequate printer, then spend the rest on Nintendo games and nail polish. Perfect shopping experience.
I hate this series: review of the big box stores in the author's neighborhood" - what on earth is the point?
And the printer experience? Great if you can buy one which good quality control and wireless that doesn't drop. I have read reviews ad nauseum and there is nothing worth buying, no matter what the technology.
So who cares about your local stores..
the ink is my main concern.
I never use color ink and the machine runs out of it and I HAVE to buy it so I can use the machine.
the cost of it is ridiculous.
I see some of you have laser one , might consider that next time.
Frankly, if I were going to go to a store and buy a printer or computer or whatever tech need (rather than online), I would be going there for the customer service experience particularly the salesperson's knowledge of the device to help me sort through the different choices. I would do price and stock availability comparisons online before heading out to the various stores.
is the writer a novice at shopping?
it isn't about who has the biggest display. it is about who has the best item for you at the best price for your budget.
you first research all available models that offer the features you need, in the price range that seems reasonable to you. find the best of the best in that range, and then find the store that will give you the best deal.
if a store has 20 models, and salespeople that don't know jack you are no better off at that store than the store that has 6 models, and again, salespeople that don't know much more than jack. if both stores carry the model you want, and one has a better price, then you go with that store.
this isn't the 80's.
Bought a new printer last year - an Epson Workforce (at Best Buy). It is the FIRST printer I've ever fallen in love with. Yes, LOVE!
Not one paper jam, and it has just recently warned me of low black ink. I haven't had to replace any of the cartridges before now ... and I'm a writer printing out novels for editing.
Now it's time to find an ink supplier. ;) Any suggestions, ATers?
I'm an Apple user, BTW. Never a problem printing from any of my devices.