So I am officially one of the few people left in the world to recently discover Office Depot. I have always known it was a store to buy school and business supplies, but when you have budget friendly stores such as Walmart or Dollar Tree, it's hard to see Office Depot for the gem that it is.

We have two Office Depot stores: one located on thirteenth street and the other on Newberry Road. I have shopped at both stores, and I actually prefer shopping at the Newberry location even though it's a lot further away from my house because the store has more items in stock.

I love drawing so one of the things I love about Office Depot is their variety of art supplies and pens. They carry a variety of art pencils and pens, but what I gravitate to the most are the prismacolor color markers and colored pencils. I just think in terms of finished product and quality, no other art brand can really compete with them. The prismacolor markers and colored pencils are a bit expensive, but I can't be the quality when it comes to my drawings.

Even though I have an iPhone 7 plus which has a lot of features when it comes to taking notes and saving them, but I am old-fashioned in terms of using a notebook or planner to keep track of my notes, reminders and ideas. Office Depot carries a lot of different designs from plain, solid color notebooks to multi-color designs and other cool graphics which can sometimes be geared towards adolescents, but I still like them. Because Gainesville is mainly a college town with the University of Florida at the heart of the town, there are plenty of collegiate planners and supplies for UF. I'm an FSU fan so I don't even look twice at the Gator stuff, but I have managed to stock up on a lot of FSU stationary, planners and pens at reasonable prices.

I love the office furniture Office Depot has in stores, but the unfortunate part about their furniture is that it's dedicated to people with businesses in commercial offices or people with large offices at home. I have neither so it's a little disappointing see the nice furniture and not being able to buy it, but I like that I do have the option to buy their office furniture when I do decide to move my home business to a commercial property. The furniture is stylish and elegant, and can be quite expensive depending on the style and brand you choose. I have, however, seen a few pieces of furniture that are dedicated to small spaces such as a portable computer desk or a small study desk. I actually found a small desk I use in my room I found at the thirteenth street store for $50. I think I lucked out with that desk because it was on clearance.
Like any school or business supply store, Office Depot carry a lot of computer programs such as QuickBooks, Microsoft Office and educational. When it comes to computer programs I always do a price comparison because computer programs can cost an arm and a leg depending on how much or little the program comes with. I have a rewards card so I earn each time I make a purchase, especially on high items such as computer programs.

Overall, Office Depot may be on the expensive side depending on what you are buying, but I go there all the time for my stationary and art supplies. The store is a wonderland for both students and business owners alike because everything you will need or don't even know you need is available at Office Depot. One of the great things about this store when you are ordering something is that if you want to pick it up at the store it will be there in an hour. I use the pickup service during shopping trips when I don't have the extra time to look around the store for what I want. The rewards card is a good investment only if you buy a lot of big ticket item because anything else is not really worth the few cents you will earn buying small things like pens or tape.