While small businesses struggle to stay afloat in the challenging economy, the fact is business must go on. Office supplies are one of those necessary evils for every company. You can’t get business done without the right office products to accomplish your every day tasks. That creates a focus on cost cutting, and most purchasing agents today will tell you they are under pressure to cut the costs of office supplies. A natural area to look for savings is in store brand, private label office products. Prices seem much lower in many cases, so it’s very tempting to try and save money with generic brands. The big question is, do you get what you pay for with private label office supplies?

Thorough research provides a complex answer – yes, and no. I’ve tested tons of office supply brands looking at national brands and private label options, and the not so simple findings show that some product categories of office products have great private label options. However, some categories have poor options as well, and the money you think you are saving upfront with lower prices are more than offset by poor quality.

The point of this article, and the thing for all purchasing managers to take away, is two important pieces of information. First, what private brands in general offer the best quality products across the board? Second, what office supply categories lend themselves to typically having good quality private label options, and which categories should you avoid? It’s like buying groceries. Store brand cereal may be ok considering the price difference, but store brand peanut butter isn’t worth it. My kids won’t eat it if it’s not Jif or Peter Pan.

Universal is my choice for the highest quality value brand. Pricing is usually 30-50% less than national brands, and the quality is often identical. In fact, many Universal products are manufactured by the leading national brands, and so you aren’t trading quality for lower prices. My second choice is Sparco who, like Universal, often uses nationally known manufacturers to make many of their items.

A key take away on brands is Universal and Sparco brands are always a better choice than the “office mega-depot” big box stores. Big retail chains like Office Depot care only about profits, and they make huge price demands of their suppliers. Most often they are negotiating with small companies in China who bend to their price demands, but only after cutting as much cost and quality as possible out of the product. This leaves cheap products at low prices which in turn do not provide you good value for the money. Remember, avoid superstore brands.

Once you know the brands that are good, the next step is to know what office supply categories are typically good quality. A high demand category with good quality products is in the file folder area. This includes everything from the standard manila letter size file folders for every day filing needs, to hanging folders, classification folders, end tab folders and more. Universal has a massive selection of filing supplies all with great prices and good quality. Another area is office binders. Offices use tons of binders like view binders for presentations or storage binders for filing. Products like d ring binders in all capacity sizes from 1 inch to 5 inch binders are all great quality from Universal.

There are many other categories with prices up to 70% lower than national brands with very good quality. As an example, instead of using the much more expensive Sharpie brand permanent markers, use the Universal brand. Also, you can’t go wrong with Universal envelopes, computer paper, printer paper or storage file boxes. Typical commodity items like binder clips, staples or scratch pads are always better values using private brands.

If commodity high use items are typically good values, what are the categories where you should avoid private label products? A general way to look at it is to avoid higher ticket items that you do not buy often, and have relatively high price points. For example, higher priced products in office equipment like desk calculators, laminators, paper punches or heavy duty staplers are better values with national brands than private label. Office furniture like Hon filing cabinets, Basyx desks or Global chairs are better values than private label. Computer accessories like mice, mouse pads and security screens are better value using national brands. Hopefully you see the pattern here with the types of products where national brands are just plain better quality. They are usually higher end and more technical in nature.

The big question now is where is the best place to find Universal brand products so you can start saving money today. First where you won’t find them — the office superstores have their own store brands and do not carry Universal. Universal is a private brand carried by high quality independent office supply dealers. Today I buy all my office supplies online because it’s faster, easier and saves me money. I buy from a family owned company that practices conscious capitalism and donates half their profits to charity. They do good work and help me do good work too. Search them out, or find another quality independent office products dealer and start saving money on office supplies using private label products today.

Tristan Hill is an expert on Office Supplies, and he searches out companies that practice Conscious Capitalism. He loves Zuma Office Supply for great prices and free shipping, plus they give back 50% to great charities! Check them out today.

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