Looking for low-cost supplies? You better shop around

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I turned to the pros for this one.

The question is where can a lawyer get high-quality, inexpensive business cards, envelopes, letterhead, and other office supplies? I posed that to a number of individuals who make a living by knowing the answer to such inquiries. They are legal administrators or office managers.

Margaret Angel, who serves as bookkeeper and also keeps the supply cabinet stocked at Angel & Angel S.C. in Dodgeville, uses a variety of sources and strategies.

There’s no such thing as “one-stop shopping” if you want the best deals, she says. She constantly compares prices and gets some items online and some at the big-box stores when she makes an occasional trip to Madison.

“I’m constantly checking prices and looking at sale fliers. It’s just something you have to do in this economy,” she says.

For the online purchases, as a general rule she likes Quill.com for its low prices, selection and service. She never pays for shipping by buying in bulk -– plus, supplies tend to be lower priced, the more you buy at once.

That’s the whole idea behind Costco, where she likes to get printer cartridges, for example, three at a time.

When at Office Depot or Staples for in-store purchases, she typically comes armed with coupons and depleted cartridges for recycling, and gets an added discount for that. She always uses the cards issued to members enrolled in their “rewards” programs. An in-store item might be offered at a lower price for rewards members, or they get 10 percent back to be redeemed on future purchases. If she forgets the card, she always asks the clerk to search the database and apply the discount; they always can do so very easily.

Along these lines, about every month or so, I get coupons in the mail from OfficeMax, for $10 off any purchase of $20 or more, in-store. I use most all of them, and because I do, it tells the OfficeMax database to send me more. Some of the coupons are also for online purchases. I never buy anything there without a coupon.

If your favorite big box is Staples, you might be pleased to know that it acquired Corporate Express last year. Mickey F. Biedermann, business manager of Neider & Boucher S.C. in Madison, shops online at www.corporatexpress.com for some items, noting that it’s a vendor partner of the Wisconsin Association of Legal Administrators. “I know they’re not always the cheapest, but I’ve always been impressed by the service and sometimes that’s worth paying for,” she says.

Biedermann also likes to support the local economy whenever possible, and patronizes Madison-based EZ Office Products at www.ezop.com. EZ is an online business that ships anywhere in the United States, and it, too, is a WALA vendor.
Mark A. Bridgeman, the legal administrator for Hurley, Burish & Stanton S.C. in Madison, praises Insty Prints when it comes to high-quality and low-priced business cards and other paper goods. But large and mid-sized firms might want to give Curtis 1000’s Web site a look, he adds, at www.curtis1000.com.

Finally, Lenor Coe, legal administrator for Godfrey, Liebsle, Blackbourn & Howarth S.C. in Elkhorn, says they bypass the chain office supply stores and the online vendors for an independent retailer, Clark Office Supplies Inc., for most of their office needs. The prices are reasonable, but mostly, they like Clark for the service.

“We can call and anything we need will be here no later than the next day, or the same day if possible, for no extra charge. For the bigger items, they’ll deliver, set up, and take the boxes. We just can’t argue with that level of service and commitment,” she says.

They do comparison shop from time to time, she adds, and they keep coming back to Clark. Go to http://wb016.britlink.com/bl5/clarkofficesupply.

More Free (or Cheap) CLE

My last column on low-cost CLE prompted Sabrina Nunley, director of continuing legal education at the Milwaukee Bar Association, to e-mail me about the MBA’s bargains.

For starters, the MBA offers monthly, free CLE with its Westlaw Wednesdays. For this year, 11 programs were scheduled; eight remain, two of which are ethics programs. These are pre-approved credits, available over the noon hour, and they include free lunch. The next program is May 1. For more info, contact Nunley at (414) 276-5932 or [email protected].

When opening the wallet is required, the MBA is competitively priced with a sizable number of all-day, pre-approved seminars for $100. It comes out to about $14.29 per credit, Nunley writes, and it includes continental breakfast and lunch. All of the MBA seminars are Webcast, if you don’t want to leave the office.

Not to be left out of the free CLE, Fastcase Inc., the State Bar’s new partner legal-research provider, is offering nine upcoming Webinars as well. They have been submitted for credit, but have not been approved as of press time. (My money’s on the Board of Bar Examiners approving them.) The first one is April 23, and BBE should have reached its decision by then. Contact Fastcase before investing your time, at 866-773-2782 or [email protected].