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The trend has been called a retail exodus. In the past few months there have been more than a dozen store closures in downtown San Francisco. I’ve written about the closure of a flagship Whole Foods which made 568 calls to 911 over the 13 months it was open. A 300,000 square foot Nordstroms is closing as is Office Depot, Anthropologie, Saks Off 5th and many more. The SF Chronicle put together this map showing the recent closures.And last week another major retailer announced it was closing up. Old Navy will be shutting down its San Francisco store this summer.The...

Nordstrom has announced it is closing all of its San Francisco stores, blaming the 'changed dynamics' of the city which has seen numerous major chains turn-tail in the face of soaring crime. The retailer told employees it would not be renewing its leases at the Westfield Mall or at the Nordstrom Rack across the street. The mall location will shutter at the end of August, and the Rack store will remain open until July 1, according to the Washington Post. Nordstrom chief stores officer Jamie Nordstrom blamed the state of San Francisco in recent years for reducing foot traffic 'and...

Earlier this month I wrote about San Francisco’s flagship Whole Foods supermarket which announced it was closing after just one year because of high theft and security issues for employees who worked there. Today, SFGate reports another store downtown is closing after two decades.Anthropologie, a retailer chain that specializes in women’s clothing and accessories, is closing its location at 880 Market St. on May 13, according to the Anthropologie website. The 880 Market St. location has been a staple of the Union Square retail space, and originally opened there more than two decades ago.Anthropologie didn’t say why it was closing....

A federal judge has blocked the proposed merger of Staples and Office Depot, saying the government had made the case that the merger had a "reasonable probability" of hurting competition in office supplies.

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (CBSLA.com/AP) — A suburban Chicago woman is accusing Office Depot of religious discrimination, saying employees told her that making copies of an anti-abortion prayer violated company policy. Last month, Maria Goldstein, a Roman Catholic, asked employees at an Office Depot location in Schaumburg, Ill., to make 500 copies of “A Prayer for Planned Parenthood”, the Associated Press reported. The prayer was composed by the Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of the anti-abortion group Priest for Life. It calls on God to “Bring an end to the killing of children in the womb, and bring an end to the...

An Office Depot in Illinois last month refused to print copies of a flyer that contained facts about Planned Parenthood (mostly taken from Planned Parenthood’s own annual report) along with a pro-life prayer, and the company is standing by that decision in the face of legal threats: Last month, Maria Goldstein, a Roman Catholic, asked employees at an Office Depot location in Schaumburg, Ill., to make 500 copies of “A Prayer for Planned Parenthood”, the Associated Press reported . . . Company spokeswoman Karen Denning tells the Chicago Tribune that Office Depot prohibits the copying of material that advocates...

<p>The CEO of Office Depot apologized Friday to a suburban Chicago woman who said the company discriminated against her religious beliefs when its employees told her that making copies of an anti-abortion prayer violated company policy.</p> <p>Maria Goldstein, who is Roman Catholic, asked the Office Depot in Schaumburg last month to make 500 copies of "A Prayer for Planned Parenthood."</p>

A Rolling Meadows woman has accused Office Depot of discriminating against her Roman Catholic faith after employees told her running copies of an anti-abortion prayer violated company policy. Karen Denning, a spokeswoman for Office Depot, said company policy prohibits "the copying of any type of material that advocates any form of racial or religious discrimination or the persecution of certain groups of people. It also prohibits copying any type of copyrighted material." "The flier contained material that advocates the persecution of people who support abortion rights," Denning said.

<p>In a rare instance of corporate criticism of a president, Staples Inc. on Wednesday said that President Barack Obama “appears not to have all the facts” when he criticized the company’s policy of limiting worker hours.</p> <p>The news website BuzzFeed had reported earlier this week that Staples had toughened up enforcement of a rule limiting part-time staff to 25 hours. The story reported that the company’s stance was seen by many workers as an effort to avoid paying benefits.</p>

Southwest Airlines is among the major corporate sponsors of the 2015 “Creating Change” conference, an annual event drawing thousands of homosexual, bisexual, transgender, “queer” and “kink” (sadomasochistic) activists from across the country. The massive gathering of LGBTQueer activists opens today in Denver and includes a screening of a documentary film celebrating a “gay”-authored play casting “Jesus” as a homosexual. The documentary, “Corpus Christi: Playing with Redemption,” celebrates the 1998 play “Corpus Christi,” by homosexual playwright Terrence McNally, in which “Joshua,” representing Jesus Christ, is cast as a homosexual who as a teenager had homosexual sex with Judas (who later becomes...

In a move expected to accelerate the shutdown of office-supply stores across the U.S., Staples Inc. has agreed to pay stock worth $6.3 billion to acquire rival Office Depot, which last year absorbed the former Office Max chain. The price works out to $11 per Office Depot share, up from $7.60 on Monday (Office Depot shares started rising Tuesday as deal rumors were reported in the financial news). "Financially this transaction makes sense and is necessary to the longterm health of these two companies," retail analyst David Strasser told investors for Janney Capital Markets in a report today. Both Staples,...

Boca Raton-based Office Depot said Tuesday it would close 165 stores during 2014 — up from the 150 estimated earlier this year — but stuck with a total count of 400 store closures through 2016, the company said. The office-supply retailer, which merged with OfficeMax last year in a $1.2 billion transaction, said it has completed its analysis of which stores will be closed across the U.S. and Canada. Locally, the retailer has closed two OfficeMax stores, in Coral Springs and Deerfield Beach. The company also announced on a conference call following its second-quarter earnings announcement that it has settled...

(Reuters) - Office Depot Inc (ODP.N) said it would close at least 400 stores in the United States over two years as it looks to consolidate operations after acquiring OfficeMax, and the company raised its forecast for full-year adjusted operating income. Shares of Office Depot, which also reported better-than-expected quarterly results, rose as much as 20 percent in early trading. The stock was among the highest percentage gainers on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. "This stock looks to be a beat and raise story throughout 2014," Janney Capital Markets analyst David Strasser wrote in a note, implying Office...

“Thousands of kids who might have otherwise worked through their pubescent sexual identity issues will be inspired to accept the wrong choice based upon this unscientific, emotionally charged born this way propaganda,” the FFA writes, “What’s brave or kind about telling thousands of sexually frustrated teens that they were born this way when a high percentage of them would have ended up taking the straight heterosexual path for life?”

BOCA RATON — BOCA RATON – Office Depot's International Division president was terminated Monday because of an "improper relationship with another associate," according to a statement released by CEO Neil Austrian. Charlie Brown, 58, who had been International president since 2005 and a top executive since joining the company in 1998, made $3.5 million last year in salary, bonuses, incentives and other compensation, according to the company's annual report. Formerly he was CFO of Denny's Inc. and he was with ARAMARK International amd Pizza Hut International.

Office Depot will close 10 percent of North American stores Office Depot Inc. will close 112 underperforming retail stores in North America in the next three months, including its Overland Park store, leaving it with 1,163 stores, and close 14 more stores throughout 2009 as their leases expire, for a total reduction of about 10 percent of its North American stores. The company’s Web site lists five Kansas City-area stores. The Overland Park store is at 10551 Metcalf Ave. The company said it will close 45 stores in the central United States, 40 in the Northeast and Canada, 19 in...

(snip)....Under a three-year contract that went into place Feb. 1, state agencies are directed to buy all their office supplies from Atlanta-based Office Depot. In the past, agencies had been allowed to choose from several companies, including several North Carolina suppliers. "The small businesses are the ones who pay the most taxes back to the state," said Christopher Sharpe, vice president of Piedmont Office Suppliers in Greensboro. "It won't put us out of business, but it will definitely hurt the bottom line." He estimated the contract will cost six independent suppliers in the state more than 100 jobs and $24.5...

Washington DC, Dec. 09, 2005 (CNA) - Intervening in the heated debate about the mention of Christmas on the public square, Concerned Women for America (CWA) presented a first Christmas list showing which businesses are honouring the Reason for the Season (the birth of Jesus), which ones are not, and which have mixed records. It first lists the corporation ‘Nice’ or friendly to the Original Christmas tradition.  This year Macy's joins the NICE list because it has returned the explicit mention of Christmas and Merry Christmas to its stores and its ads. L.L. Bean, on the other hand, just barely...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Sept. 8, 2005 – Military families received free back-to-school supplies at Mary Fay Pendleton Elementary School here Aug. 24, thanks to a donation from a local business. The donation came just in time - five days before students returned to Camp Pendleton’s schools for the 2005-2006 school year. Camp Pendleton’s Office Depot donated 725 backpacks filled with school supplies to Mary Fay Camp Pendleton Elementary students. In addition to the backpacks, the school received office chairs, two pallets of paper, four pallets of cardboard tubes, 10 cases of toilet paper and 10 cases of facial tissue. Office...

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Office Depot Inc. announced plans Friday to cut roughly another 800 jobs, including positions in retail stores, its corporate headquarters and its European sales force, officials said. The announcement comes two weeks after officials announced plans to cut 900 jobs as it consolidates operations at eight call centers and offices in six states. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Office Depot — the nation's second-largest office supply retailer — said it was reducing its staff at retail stores in North America by 2 percent. Altogether, the cuts were estimated to generate $14.2 million...