Office Depot Contest Brings over $1 Million in Prizes to Small Business

Business Wire, June 25, 2009

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), a leading global provider of office products and services, is conducting a search for the nation’s best and smartest small businesses through its “Adopt a Small Business Contest.” This contest is awarding more than $1 million in prizes by recognizing 500 small businesses nationwide for their smart survival strategies. To enter, a small business can upload an original two-minute video at TheSurvivalofTheSmartest.com and explain the smart things their business is doing to survive these challenging times.

The “Office Depot Adopt a Small Business Contest” will award each of the eligible winning businesses with a $1,300 Office Depot Gift Card, tech support for a year from Office Depot’s Tech Depot Services valued at $599.99, and copy, print and ship services from Office Depot’s Design, Print, and Ship center valued at $110, for a combined total prize value of over $2,000 for each winning business. Visit Office Rules for official rules and regulations. The contest ends July 31, 2009.

There are thousands of smart things small businesses are doing to survive and thrive. Just sharing these thoughts in a two minute video entry can add up to a chance to win the “Adopt a Small Business Contest” and a share of the $1 million prize package. Even simple things like how your business is using email, Facebook or Twitter feeds can be brought to life in a video entry. What makes your small business unique? Did your small business sponsor a community event and use it to reach new customers? Have you done a customer promotion that helped drive sales?

Check out some of the latest video entries online and see what other smart businesses had to say. Plus, you can also view the “Steve Strauss Spotlight” featuring insights from Strauss, one of the country’s leading small business experts and Senior Business Columnist for USAToday.com.

The “Adopt a Small Business Contest” is part of the larger “Small Business Self-Bailout Plan” Office Depot launched earlier this month. The one-of-a-kind program provides small businesses with the tools, resources and support they need to help their business survive and thrive in this current economic downturn. Office Depot is committed to doing everything it can to help small businesses during these tough times.

For more information on the “Adopt a Small Business Contest,” please visit www.thesurvivalofthesmartest.com.

For Office Depot store locations, please click on Office Depot: Your Local Office Supply Store to find locations near you.

About Office Depot

Every day, Office Depot is Taking Care of Business for millions of customers around the globe. For the local corner store as well as Fortune 500 companies, Office Depot provides products and services to its customers through 1,604 worldwide retail stores, a dedicated sales force, top-rated catalogs and a $4.6 billion e-commerce operation. Office Depot has annual sales of approximately $14.5 billion, and employs about 42,000 associates around the world. The Company provides more office products and services to more customers in more countries than any other company, and currently sells to customers directly or through affiliates in 48 countries.

Office Depot’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index. Additional press information can be found at: http://mediarelations.officedepot.com.