For three years, we’ve been using ridiculously bad chairs in the Big Big Design offices. No arm support, poor back support, wrong height — an ergonomic nightmare.
So at long last, I’ve decided we should have better chairs. We searched some websites and catalogs, and we chose chairs that are available at Staples. Nothing too fancy, but they have adjustable heights and tilting and whatnot; they look like they’ll do fine.
Anthony called our local Staples to see if the chairs were in stock. And yes, there are three chairs sitting in the stock room right now.
We have a coupon for $30 off a Staples purchase, for use only when we place an order online or by phone.
Can we place the order online, get the coupon discount, and pick up the chairs at the local store? No. To get the discount, we have to have the chairs shipped to us. Shipping is free.
In other words, Staples will lose money by shipping these chairs directly to us instead of allowing us to drive over and pick the chairs up. Nice.
Hmm. While that doesn’t make sense at all, in a twisted, retail-logic sort of way, it does.
My office chair is supposed to be of the adjustable, tilty variety, but out of the four levers under the seat, I can only get one to work.
I had a chair like yours once, Amy. I felt sure there had once been a user’s manual to go with it, and I resented that I would never know how to properly use my chair. But now, looking back, I have to think anyone who designs a chair that is that hard to use has not done his job properly.
(Now watch what happens when I can’t figure out how to use my new chair when it arrives. But you can bet that I will read the manual, if there is one.)
I’ve been having very similar chair issues. I bought an $80 Staples special “executive” model back in 2000. Staples and a variety of other office suppliers must tend to think that executives are twice as wide as the average person.
I used the IKEA’s KLÄPPE for awhile, but I’m not sure that I am brave enough to pay $320 for a swedish flat-pack chair.
I’ve also been looking at Target’s Adjustable Task Chair, and it seems to have all the right features. I’m due to give my local Target a call to find out if it’s in stock. I want to try out anything that I’ll spend a lot of time in.
So, what model did you end up picking?
Steve, I went with this Acadia chair at Staples. I wanted an adjustable back and adjustable arms. I like the seat depth — both my brother and I are tall with long legs — and it has a feeling of sturdiness.
It turns out to be a little poor at rolling, but we’re not holding many chair races at the Big Big Design offices so that’s fine. Otherwise, so far so good. That’s after three days. Too soon to attest to durability, so I’ll have to report back. But for $149 each I think we at least didn’t get screwed.
It’s meshy!
I was wondering how the non-herman-miller mesh chairs were doing. I tried out a few at Office Max and others, but they feel a little flimsy for my liking.
I looked at the OfficeMax verison of the aforementioned Target chair side-by-side with a Sealy lumbar-support chair. The thing is that, especially for a guy, I’m skinny and picky about my posture. I’m beginning to think I’d do just as well with a lower end Ikea chair. The Swedes seem to make furniture more in my size.
Chair racing is going to show up in a youtube video somewhere if it hasn’t already done so.