I ran out of staples for my Swingline stapler. After replacing the strip with the last strip in the box, I needed to order more.
So, wondering what the price might be (since it’s probably been a decade or so since I last purchased a box of staples), I went to Amazon (we needed some other stuff anyway). I was shocked.
The standard Swingline-brand staples came 210 staples to a strip, 24 strips to a box: so 5,000 staples. 3.3oz., but free shipping anyway.
The price? $2.14. That’s two dollars and fourteen cents. For what will probably be enough staples for my lifetime (not for *a* lifetime, but…).
Of course, they come in a simple (and wholly recyclable) thin cardboard box, not the fancy plastic box the last bunch came in (that bunch must have been 4,000 staples or fewer–I couldn’t fit all the strips into the old box).
Oh, you can get by for less: A pack of 50,000 Amazon Basics staples (10 5,000-staple packs) costs $16.45.
Or I could get fancy and get “premium” Swingline-brand staples, but those cost (gasp) $2.68 for 5,000.
I wonder: just how much did these staples cost ten or twenty years ago? I’m guessing a lot more, especially factoring in inflation.
I also wonder how they can be so cheap. (Office Depot offered a 5-pack of 5,000-each-pack Swinglines for $12.99/pack, which is, what, $2.60/5,000. Their house brand is $9.79 on sale, less than $2/5,000.)
Anyway, that’s my outrageous pricing story for today.
