Little Rock vs. Walmart for Printing Documents

Summary:

• There are lots of factors to consider when deciding where to print documents and other print products for your business: product options, quality, cost, timing, customer service and extras.
• Retailers like Walmart might seem like a quick and easy option, but choosing a professional printer like Little Rock Printing allows you to receive the highest-quality product possible.
• With Little Rock, you get a variety of product and customization options, in-house printing services, free paper kits and a free proof of your design before you submit your full order.

Deciding where to print your business documents and other print products can be overwhelming, especially when you’re torn between a local big-box store and a professional printer. Companies like Walmart may offer low prices and fast service, but they don’t have the same high-quality equipment as a professional printing company—you could end up with a bad printing job that needs to be redone by a professional printer.

When you choose a professional printing company like Little Rock, you’ll get a number of incredible benefits that go beyond what a large retailer can offer. Overall, you’ll save time, money and effort while receiving the highest-quality print product possible.

Still unsure which is the better route for your business needs? Here are some factors to consider when deciding between a professional printer and a large retailer.

Product Options

The first thing you need to consider when choosing your printing company is what type of print products are available. It’s a good idea to see a company’s range in the type of products they offer. As we break these down by company, we’re looking specifically at document-type printing options—both companies offer other products outside of this list.

Walmart

Walmart has a few document-type printing products they offer for businesses, including:

• Postcards
• Business cards
• Company greeting cards
• Calendars
• Address labels

Little Rock

Little Rock offers many of these same printing products and more, like:

• Postcards
• Business cards
• Company greeting cards
• Calendars
• Booklets
• Notepads
• Documents (for memos, contracts)
• Brochures
• Envelopes

Quality

One of the most important factors for printing documents is the quality of the product. There’s nothing more disappointing than getting your order back and it’s low quality or incorrect. The highest-grade printer paper is what you’re shooting for and a professional printer is the best place to find that. You’ll also notice that professional printers offer a larger variety of size options, since they can properly scale and resize images/graphics easily while maintaining a high quality.

Walmart

Walmart doesn’t have very many customization options for their document printing. For most products, you can choose the size, add text or a photo. There wasn’t an option to choose your paper type—you’re getting whatever paper the retailer recommends for that product. To cut costs, most consumer printers use cheaper inks and chemicals to develop their paper.

Little Rock

At Little Rock, we want to provide you with a number of customization options for all your projects. We offer a variety of paper, shape and size options for each of our print products. If you’re not sure which paper option is best for your project, we offer a FREE paper sample kit. Through our high-end printers, we guarantee that your design is clear and vibrant—whether you’re printing something pristine white or deep and dark.

The main thing you need to remember about quality is that our entire company is focused on printing compared to a large retailer where printing is just a sliver of their overall business. Our experts are trained in quality control and learn the best techniques to achieve the highest quality possible.

Cost

You may assume that Walmart would have cheaper pricing, since they’re a big-box retailer known for their low prices, but most professional printers offer comparable prices for their print products. It’s not as simple as which is cheaper, because most print companies, whether retail or professional printers, offer discounts for larger quantities and longer timelines.

Walmart

For most of their print products, Walmart’s prices fluctuate depending on product size, quantity and shipping. As an example, an 8”x11” 12-month calendar was just under $15 and could either be picked up in store (free) or shipped to home.

Little Rock

In comparison, a Little Rock calendar with our standard 8PT Cover paper and 80# Text inside paper is offered as low as $12.20 (with our free pickup option) for a 5-day timeline.

However, there were some items on Walmart’s website that were cheaper per unit. For example, business cards were listed for 16 cents each for 50 cards ($8 total) while our 50 cards with the 5-day timeline are 43 cents each ($21 total).

You have to keep in mind the quality and customization options that may factor into the higher price and ask yourself if it’s worth the extra cost.

Timing

We briefly mentioned this above, but the timeline of when to expect your items greatly varies on the type of product you’re ordering and how long you’re willing to wait. You can save money on your order two ways: pick it up in store or choose a longer timeline.

Walmart

Walmart offers a few different ways to receive their products: 1-hr or same-day pickup (on some products, not all), free in-store pickup (at a later date) and shipping. On average, we noticed that products using photo paper like postcards were available for 1-hr pickup and items like calendars were available for same-day pickup. These options are free for the customer and super convenient if you need your prints in a pinch. The shipping prices and times vary depending on your location (standard is 3-5 business days and expedited is 2-3 business days), but $6.99 seemed to be the standard for orders under $35 or free shipping over $35.

Little Rock

We offer free pickup at our location in Calgary and will be ready by 4pm on the day you select for delivery speed—choose between 1-5 business days for pickup or 2-7 days for delivery. Our current delivery costs range from $9.99 to $24.99, depending on your selected delivery time. Your printing price may also slightly increase with certain delivery options and product types.

Customer Service

Another really important factor when choosing your printer is how available they are to help and answer questions. You want to make sure they can respond quickly, especially if you’re having problems with your order.

Walmart

On the Walmart website, you have to do a little digging to get contact information for print orders. Click the help tab at the top and it will take you to a landing page with a few common questions, availability to chat with a team member, create an account or track your order.

Little Rock

At Little Rock, we pride ourselves on offering a local experience with more quality control than large office supply retail chains. Our staff has years of experience and are passionate about doing the work properly.

At the top of each page, you’ll see two sections in our navigation where you can talk to our team. Under the “Contact Us & Resources” tab, you’ll find contact information (phone and email) along with our address and store hours, plus an FAQ page and customer feedback form. You can also quickly access our phone number to call or text, plus our email under the “Phone, Text or Email Us” tab. We also have a chat feature in the bottom right-hand corner of each page so you can talk to a team member whenever you need.

Extras

Sometimes the little extra bonuses really make a difference between a retail printer and a professional printing company. Here’s a look at some special offerings from both companies.

Walmart

With a Walmart Photo account, you can upload and save your photos from your computer, phone or other device. The account is free and you can store as many photos you want in your account. You can also arrange photos into albums for easy access.

Another benefit that Walmart offers with their business product offerings is promotional items like mugs, mouse pads, tote bags and t-shirts. With all print products, you can either upload your own design or make small customizations like adding text or uploading a photo/logo.

Little Rock

One of the great things that we like to offer to our customers is a free sample print of your design. Use the coupon code “FREEPROOF” to get a printed example of your product—that way you can check the look and feel of your design before placing a large order.

We’re often asked if we can provide any graphic design help to our clients. While we don’t have the capabilities to do that, we do have a number of FREE Canva templates that we’ve created for many of our print products. Simply click on the template you want to use and it will take you to Canva to start editing. This is a great place to also convert your JPEG files into a print-friendly PDF that you can submit to us before placing your order.

Comparison Chart

Overall, we highly recommend going with a professional printer, like Little Rock, for all your printing needs. Here’s a quick glance of what we have to offer over a big-box retailer.

Real-Life Examples

When you want documents that look great and last, Little Rock has your back. Check out some of the projects that we’ve printed in house.

We printed multiple versions of these spiral notebooks for various team development sessions with the Dexterra Group. The company was able to choose from an array of customizations with their order, including document size, binding option (they picked black wire-O banding), cover paper type and inside paper type.

These business cards for Heather Kinahan Art definitely needed a professional printer’s touch. Through our high-tech printers, we were able to ensure that the back of the business card truly captured the colours and textures of the artist’s work.

Choose Little Rock For Your Professional Printing

Ready to design and print your next project? Our professional equipment and many years of experience help us print the documents you need more efficiently, so you get a beautiful result within a reasonable budget.

When you’re finished with your design, submit a print-friendly PDF for professional printing. We offer no minimums, free sample proofs and flexible timelines so you can get your print materials when you need them. Contact the Little Rock Printing experts today to get started.