Staples--Not Just for "Staples" this holiday season-- That Was EASY!

Yesterday, I attended a presentation, courtesy of STAPLES and hosted by Tory Johnson, the Workplace Contributor on ABC's Good Morning America, about hot, holiday gifts and gadgets. That's Tory, in the middle, giving us the lowdown on gifts for everyone from children, to CEOs. STAPLES is nearly synonymous with office supplies, but it's always been a great place for me to shop for tech gadgets as well. The prices are reasonable to "bargain" and their return policy is good, too. In addition, since many people don't realize how many gift-able items STAPLES carries, it's going to be a lot less hectic to shop in a STAPLES store, than at the Mall.

Tory outlined lots of gift suggestions from Digital Picture Frames to toys for the kiddies, but the two most popular items for the holidays are sure to be digital cameras and laptops. Here are her suggestions for purchasing these items: For Cameras, Tory suggested that consumers consider these key features: megapixels (the more you have, the clearer the photo), Face Recognition (no more blurry faces), Optical Zoom (the higher the optical zoom range, the farther away you can be and still take a clear photo), The size (small but mighty is the ideal for most people), color (why settle for dull metal?) and image stabilization (shaky hands won't blur your photos anymore) . For Laptops: Integrated webcam (makes it easy to connect to others, even if you are far away), Bluetooth (wireless lets you work with it, anywhere and sync to other bluetooth enabled devices such as PDAs, cell phone, printers, and "mice.", LightScribe (lets you print CDs right onto your disk) and Weight (compact and light-weight is best if you travel with your laptop).

Some of my favorite STAPLES gift suggestion items include:

This amazing Canon PowerShot SD750 Digital Camera with an incredible price of $249.00! It is a super-compact, lightweight, put it in your pocket digital very similar to the Canon I use to shoot photos for this blog, but it's less than $240 (mine was a lot more) AND it has 7 megapixels, which means you can enlarge your digital photos up to 13" x 19" and they will still be sharp. There's a video feature and a face recognition feature that lets you "lock" onto faces so they are exposed properly on the photo. *by the way, the Canon interface for your computer is really easy...I love it!

Here's the Staples MailMate M3 Shredder I mentioned in my previous post. It is just $79.99 and will help keep you safer from identity theft all year long.

As a writer, one of my favorite "stocking stuffer" gifts is cute office supplies. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a study, or a busy mom, colorful clips, push-pins and magnets are not only fun to use, they're essential to stay organized. Clips likes these from from $1.99 - $5.99 a package, and look a LOT more expensive. They make a great grab bag gift for the office, too.

For the big spender, STAPLES is selling a Dell Inspiron 1521 Laptop for $929.98 (they're the only retailer, besides Dell, to sell these computers directly to the customer). This particular model has full sized keys and a touch pad that make it easy on your fingers when you're on it for hours. It also has 2 GB of storage and all sorts of bells and whistles including an integrated webcam. I also was impressed with the TomTom 720 GPS System $499.99 ($399.99 from Nov. 18-Dec. 31, 2007) that is completely portable, and has voice as well as graphics. You can purchase real time traffic reports on this unit, so you'll be less likely to be stuck in traffic from now on. It's also bluetooth hands-free capable.

Visit your local STAPLES store or www.staples.com and make your holiday shopping, easy. Speaking of which, don't forget to pick up one of those STAPLES "EASY' Buttons $4.99 -- the limited edition version was designed by a 14-year old girl. STAPLES will donate up to $100,000 beyond it's current $1 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America based on sales of this special EASY button. It makes a great gift for "boys" and "girls" of all ages...I brought one to the office and watched grown men pushing it over and over again to hear the gravelly voice say "that was easy!" It's the perfect "panic button" for that high-strung friend, too.