I run a small business and have been using Staples for years. Once a week or so, I stop in the neighborhood store and stock up on basic business supplies. Papers, inks, envelopes, and odds and ends that we end up needing. It is becoming more and more difficult to shop there. They are constantly moving the inventory around the store! You can’t find anything! That’s why your employees take so long. They play hide and seek with the items. I want to get in and get out, not spend my afternoon “Shopping.” The management of Staples has no idea who their customers are.
All their in store promotions ask you to purchase on line. All their employees tell you to purchase the stuff you can’t find (which may be in the store) on-line. When I do, it’s not going to be from Staples, when Amazon is half the price.
It’s too bad, they drove the local Mom and Pop business supply stores out of the neighborhood, now they don’t want to have a store themselves.
I hope the little neighborhood stores continue to find a niche. My problem is kids with school projects that I don't know about ahead of time. This, of course, is always when one runs out of ink or paper. The local Staples is 15 minutes away, which isn't too bad, but I've been bailed out more than once by a tiny Radio Shack about eight blocks away that is open an hour later. I will pay for convenience and extended hours. So will a lot of other people. The trick is sizing these stores appropriately so they are profitable.