Located on Ala Moana Boulevard, OfficeMax’s Honolulu location was recently remodeled. The print center is now in the front, rather than being hidden in the back. Also, the towering storage shelves have been removed, giving the store a new open-air feeling.
Part of that feeling of spaciousness may be due to sparse crowds at the store. In the past, OfficeMax heavily promoted its sale prices in its weekly ad. They were famous for “free-after-rebate” sale items that drew many people to line up in front of the store before opening on Sunday. Lately, not only are the free items gone, but the “sale” items in the ad are typically shown at or near retail price.
Also, OfficeMax’s frequent-shopper program, MaxPerks, is significantly inferior to Office Depot’s Advantage program. MaxPerks offers 1% back (in the form of a gift card) for purchases in a quarter. All other things being equal, I often choose Office Depot due to their superior loyalty program (and I do realize that “loyalty,” in this case, translates to whichever store gives me the better deal.)
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