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We have a small restaurant where we have a form that is filled out by the order taker and put on the wall where the cooks and other food preparers see it and prepare the food accordingly. When the food is ready, the delivery man takes the form off the wall and attaches it to the delivery bag or box. This form and method are very convenient because it has the order, the customer name and phone number, the address, and the total amount owed.

Originally we were using long form sticky notes but these are expensive and are blank so the order taker in a rush would forget to jot down some of the important details. The form we use now does not have adhesive on the back so we keep using lots of scotch tape.

My question is:

What would be a cost effective and durable adhesive that we can quickly apply to the back of the form that would emulate sticky notes? The life cycle is just for 1 day or less. It has to hold the form to the wall for the duration of food preparation and on the delivery box to the destination. Prefer DIY from common natural ingredients, but will consider ready off the shelf adhesives.

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    Are you kidding me? Do you keep records of this kind of low-level inventory? If you use, say, X amount of slips a month, then you know you use about X*12 a year, so why not bulk purchase this amount of sticky notes on Alibaba? Super cheap. You're being short-term greedy.
    – user22124
    Nov 26, 2017 at 2:48
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    What were you paying for the "good" ones? I bet I could reduce your per unit cost over a year by a factor of 10.
    – user22124
    Nov 26, 2017 at 2:50
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    You can get pads of official sticky notes printed with anything you want, so with the form. This may be more expensive than you want.
    – Ross Millikan
    Nov 26, 2017 at 15:43
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    @RossMillikan, unofficially too, in a country like, say, Pakistan.
    – user22124
    Nov 26, 2017 at 21:38

8 Answers 8

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The fast food place I go has a clipping strip on the 'wall' and uses a stapler to add the note to the bag.

When you search internet for -double sided adhesive strip dispensers- you will find a big selection. When you search your local (or national online) shops you will find the kind that sells locally. I do not add photos, as all I find have brand names or shop information.

The one I use at work has a grip, works like a big size tape dispenser but only places a strip of glue, permanent in our case.
There are also 'less permanent' versions as well as smaller ones.

In a place where food hygiene is important, I would not want home made glues, which might contaminate the food.

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You can get the same adhesive as Post-It notes in the form of a glue stick, effectively turning any piece of paper into a Post-It note.

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  • I think this is more expensive than post-its...
    – Tony
    Jan 28, 2018 at 4:49
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You can purchase Spray-on Repositionable Adhesive which turns everything into post-its.

However, it is a spray, which means everything in the vicinity of the target will also get sticky. I have used spray adhesives in the past and it gets absolutely everywhere. I also doubt it would be safe to spray inside a place where food is being prepared.

Anyway. Use a spring clip and staples... it's much cleaner...

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  • +1 I have used this often and it works very well. I made a "template"/stand to spray through.
    – anna328p
    Nov 26, 2017 at 5:33
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You're not going to find a solution that costs less than an inch of Scotch tape.
You can buy various sizes (including 3x8 in.) of "custom sticky notes" online - just Google the phrase - if you're willing to cough up a penny or two per sheet.

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Scotch/3M Removable Restickable Glue Stick.

Scotch Restickable Glue Stick

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    This is the exact same item (same image even) as 200_success's answer (posted 4 hours before yours)... did you just copy their answer, adding an image & amazon link? That's frowned upon (See, I'm frowning :(
    – Xen2050
    Nov 30, 2017 at 4:23
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A quick swipe with an Elmer's Glue Stick on the back of the form will let the form stick to the wall like a Post-It Note. The glue stick comes in a dispenser like a big Chapstick, and Elmer's claims that the adhesive is washable and non-toxic. When purchased in bulk, each stick costs about US$0.20 and you'll probably get a couple of days use from each stick.

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    Will this glue stay with the paper and stick to the bag later?
    – Willeke
    Nov 25, 2017 at 19:28
  • The glue will stay on the paper, though some may transfer to the wall. The glue is not strong enough to reliably stick the form to the bag, so it's probably best to continue stapling the form to the bag.
    – MTA
    Nov 26, 2017 at 1:57
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Why use sticky note material at all?

Hang some plane-ole' spring-clip clothes pins to hold the pre-printed order forms for the cook. They're re-usable forever. You can get plastic colour ones for colour coding if you need that capability. The clothes pins hold better than any tape, even when wet, oily, dry, staticy (?), etc.

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When the order is filled, pull the order form from the clothes pin and staple it to the bag which is a better hold than any sticky note. The next order is then put on the next clothes pin.

For the plain-paper non-adhesive forms, you can buy them by the thousands cheaper than any sticky note. If you run short, you can print them yourself.

A stapler is a trivial item. The staples are thousands for a few dollars.

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  • @Alex I've already scaled this so you needn't go to any trouble. Thanx, all the same.
    – Stan
    Jan 19, 2018 at 23:55
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Well user, thanks for your question glad you wrote. Let’s get you out of the internet and into a new set of DIY sticky notes.

I’m thinking a good solution for your food forms what which you take orders on, is to use Glue Dots®, they’re the adhesive you sometimes find on debit or credit cards when they arrive in the mail.

Alternatively, please consider some gum.

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