Charitable Gift Giving

Okay, I know what you’re thinking after reading the title. What self-respecting person would give someone pens, pencils, and staplers to their loved ones for Christmas? After suffering through boxes of cheap ballpoint pens from the likes of OfficeMax and Staples over the years, that’d be worse than putting a bag of coal in someone’s stocking (I seriously had one pen from Staples break in my hand as I was writing once, and I’ve lost count of how many pens have exploded or run out of ink only a few weeks after getting them).

But there’s a new office supply store in town that is changing the game. It’s called Poppin, and it is quite literally changing the way people think about office supplies. Unlike mass office supply stores where products are mass produced as cheaply as possible, Poppin pens and supplies really look like works of art. Don’t believe me? Compare this set of yellow office supplies from Poppin…

…with a your regular, run-of-the-mill office supplies.

No comparison, right? And if you were opening a present on Christmas, how cool would it be to get a brand new set of modern-looking, color-coordinated pens, scissors, a stapler, a tape dispenser, a desk set, notebooks, and other office supplies in your favorite color? It’s a great way to start out the New Year right, especially for someone whose desk looks, well, like mine.

My life Lisa’s favorite color is blue, so I got her a blue ruler, a blue tape dispenser, and a blue pen, all of which she loved (lest you think I’m a cheapskate, earlier I also got her a nice engagement ring in a blue box, which kind of put a damper of the rest of my spending for the year). The possibilities for gift giving increase when you consider you can combine colors–if you know someone going to college, give them an assortment of product matching their school colors. Of if you know a baseball or football fan, give them products in their team colors.

Prices at Poppin are a little higher than cheap mass-produced merchandise at big office stores, but my philosophy towards spending has always been this…be cheap on the things that you don’t use a lot, but when it comes to things you will see and use constantly every day (like a car, a mattress, and a cell phone) spend a little more and get the best. I think the same applies to office supplies. yes, $7 for a ruler might be a lot, but when you consider how sturdy this ruler is, how stylish it is, and that it’ll last you probably for the rest of your life, it’s not a lot at all compared to the thin plastic one I got from Staples that crumbled when I stepped on it!

What I love most about Poppin is that they seem to love what they do, and it comes through in their products. What I also appreciate a lot is that they do a lot of charity work. In fact, everything you purchase on the site, including the Pencils of Promise Bundle shown above, will help out the great charity Pencils of Promise that helps build schools and promote education in areas of the world with the biggest need.