Where NOT to buy your computer supplies

A few weeks ago, I found myself at the office on a weekend, doing some paperwork while one of our printers was busy printing our newsletters. The sound of a loud beep interrupted my concentration. The printer had run out of ink and I quickly discovered that we had no cartridges left.

No problem, I told myself. I’ll just run around the corner to the office supply store and pick up an ink cartridge.

But when I looked at the prices I was absolutely shocked!

Here’s an example: a black ink cartridge that we sell for $39 was $49 at the big-box store. That’s a premium of 26%. And the colour cartridges were actually being sold over list price!

And it gets worse. A 7-foot Ethernet cable that we sell for $3.50 was actually $24.99 at the same store!

Now, we’re not saying that they don’t have a right to make a profit. Of course they do. But the truth is that large retail chains make a big chunk of their profits selling accessories where the markups are much higher than on big-ticket items.

For example, a typical big-box electronics store might only have a 5% margin on the sale of a flat-screen TV. But the HDMI cable that you buy for that TV could very well have a 90% margin.

At Connectability, we think differently. Our business is here to remove the roadblocks from your business. That’s why we don’t indulge in huge markups. And that’s why we encourage you to be a smart shopper.

If your IT needs include ink, toner, cables or other accessories, please think about checking our prices. We think you’ll be very pleasantly surprised.

We understand that sometimes your business has immediate needs. But we encourage you to shop carefully on those occasions and ensure you’re making an informed decision.