Office

Protecting a Hardwood Floor with a Floor Mat

The Anji Mountain Bamboo Chair Mat from Costco is my latest attempt at protecting the hardwood floor from the office chair.

The first experiment involved a carpet runner that slid around and wasn’t quite large enough. After the first experiment failed, I tried a plastic floor mat. The shelf liner kept the plastic floor mat anchored in place. But dirt would get trapped under the mat, and the plastic floor would move around just enough that its abrasive presence would be noticed.

I’m hoping the felt-backed bamboo floor mat is the answer. No Amazon Prime when ordering through Costco, but the delivery was within a few days of the order.

The 48″ x 42″ mat comes in natural or dark cherry for $99.99. If the mat holds up, I’ll switch the remaining plastic mats over to the bamboo chair mats.

Zebra Z-Grip Retractable Ball Point Pen

Pens. What can I say? I rarely need them, but when I do, none are around. At least, none that work. I have a ton of pens that are dried out, jammed or whatever.

With that in mind, I spotted this 40 unit case of Zebra Z-Grip Retractable Ball Point Pens in assorted colors at Costco. As you can see, most of the pens are black, with a few blue and red ones included. At $9.99, the unit price is $0.300 per pen.

Amazon sells a 12 count box of black pens for $5.39, or $0.449 per pen. The 24 count box in assorted colors goes for $13.08 or $0.545, but the color selection is much more attractive than Costco’s black, blue and red combination.

So, are the deals at Costco all about buying in bulk? I spotted this item at Amazon that made me laugh. Zebra 22210 Zebra Z-Grip Retractable Ballpoint Pen, Clear Barrel, Black Ink, Med, 1.0 mm, 96 – 12ct boxes for $527.04! So, 96 12-count boxes should yield 1,152 pens. If that isn’t buying in bulk, then I don’t know what is. Obviously, not exactly for home use, even for the most prolific of writers. The unit price? $0.458 per pen. So, even if you buy over 1,000 pens through Amazon, your unit price is still higher than the 40 pack through Costco.