Right, he & I were talking about the extra up to 5% from staples rewards itself, in addition to the Chase Ink 5UR, as a comparison between buying amazon gift cards at staples vs purchasing it at staples directly.
Since gift cards don't count, only people who spend for resale, etc, will be 5% under the new system. Just buying FAR paper isn't enough, for example.
Edit to add, and since I bought an Ipad to cross the barrier from 2->3% just the other day, I can say that purchases that cross the barrier only get the *lower* amount, for the whole total, so starting at 2% tier and buying a lot of stuff only gets you 2% until you get upgraded.