Posted on 03/22/2017 7:08:12 AM PDT by Red Badger
More store closings are coming to Staples.
A shopper departs a Staples store September 29, 2005 in Mount Prospect, Illinois. (Credit: Tim Boyle/Getty Images)
On Thursday, the office supply store reported a $548 million loss and a 3% drop in sales in the fiscal fourth quarter that ended in January.
Those results prompted Staples to say it would close 70 more stores, or 4.5% of its 1,600 remaining locations, during the current fiscal year. It closed 48 stores last year and has shuttered about 350 stores over the last five years.
The retailer tried to merge with rival Office Depot, but that deal was blocked by the Federal Trade Commission a year ago.
The store closings were partly responsible for the drop in sales, but the company also suffered a 1% sales decline at stores open at least a year.
Traditional brick-and-mortar stores have been under pressure for some time due to greater online competition from online outfits such as Amazon. Hundreds of store closings have been announced so far this year.
Staples joins a growing list of big retailers that are shutting stores, which includes both Sears and its subsidiary Kmart, Macy’s, JCPenney and Abercrombie & Fitch.
On Wednesday evening RadioShack filed for bankruptcy for the second time in two years, announcing it would close 200 of its 1,500 stores and placing the future of the remaining stores in doubt.
In addition, Sears Holdings has announced plans to close 150 Sears and Kmart stores, JCPenney said it will close 140 stores and Macy’s announced it is closing 68 stores and cutting 10,000 jobs. The Limited also announced in January it would close its remaining stores.
That was easy.
I just bought a big and tall office chair.
Found it on Staples site. (for ease)
But they didn't carry it in stores.
So I looked online for cheaper prices. Amazon and Walmart were comparable. Both about $100 less. Walmart just a touch cheaper.
Ordered it. 2-3 days later I picked it up at the local Walmart.
Office Depot was desperate to have the merger. It didn’t do much for Staples (which is a much larger more stable company)....would have gotten ID out from under
“The retailer tried to merge with rival Office Depot, but that deal was blocked by the Federal Trade Commission a year ago.”
Total idiocy. The law is designed to prevent monopolies, but if the rival business is going to go under without a merger, there will be a monopoly by default anyway.
However, it’s only an illusory monopoly, since any business in this shrinking segment of the economy is actually being outcompeted by the online stores.
A shopper departs a Staples store September 29, 2005 in Mount Prospect, Illinois.
I suspect this woman was photocopying Trump’s 2005 tax return.
Companies like Staples and Office Depot are also having to deal with the fact that a lot of the products they sell are also becoming dispensable. The need for paper clips and staples and reams of paper is not as pressing as it used to be now that so much records-keeping is electronic.
Google...................They will have everything you need automatically sent to you because they will read your mind and will keep a list of everything you own, and know automatically when you need a new whatever...................
The problem with the locally owned stores was that unless you wanted something very common like 8.5x11 copy paper or a box of Bic pens they had to order it from the catalog. Just give me the catalog (of now Amazon) and I can order it myself.
A merger between Staples and Office Depot would have been every bit as successful as the merger between Sears and Kmart. Wait how about all the synergies ?
My daughter works in the print shop at Office Max. They have an endless parade of customers to keep them afloat but many of them game the system to get discounts. You won’t survive long like that.
What’s with the nostalgia for “mom & pop stores”?
You mean the stores that had limited choices, small inventory, and high prices? THOSE stores?
Good riddance, I say. I hope they NEVER come back.
I LOVE Walmart/Sam’s Club, Home Depot/Lowes, Internet shopping with free shipping and no sales tax! (Kohl’s for my wife).
well that sucks, I like Staples....and the store too
Another irony in there is, I believe, that an opening is coming for small local artisanal producers and services right when we’ve pretty much eliminated the instruction of any kind of physical skills in schools.
While I’ve taken advantage of it as much as anyone, in fairness the sales tax exemption for online purchases needs to go. It is just another wy the playing field is tilted, however it is probably true that local businesses, even when buying through cooperatives to gain volume cost advantages, cannot compete with Amazon.
Yet every business that partronizes Staples is clearly able to go to Amazon instead. So the issue is not Amazon vs. Staples, it is Locally-owned business vs. Staples. And since what Staples basically does is dislodge local businesses when they come into a market the reverse will happen when they leave, with some fraction deciding they can live with online purchasing instead.
Staples serves local demand, just as the local stores that preceeded them did. Staples business model was consolidation of local demand, just like WalMart did in general merchandise, and since WM already has the distribution channel and IT in place it would not surprise me to see them expand their office supply offerings as Staples retreats. If WM Supercenters have bakeries and drug stores, they can have copy and print shops as well.
I ordered/received a plastic replacement handle for a 15 year old, 3 gallon Chapin lawn sprayer (a great, heavy-duty pump sprayer). Cost me six bucks, free shipping thru Amazon Prime.
How does any brick and mortar retailer compete with that? The alternative was to visit Lowe’s and spend $40-50 on a new sprayer...or $15-20 on one that MIGHT see me thru to next season.
The same order...for a few dollars/free shipping, I ordered a conversion clip that converted a Fobus holster from a paddle mount to a belt mount. Try finding an obscure piece like that at your local gun shop.
The thing about Staples is that it’s an antiquated business model. I’ve recently filed for a SBA loan. The underwriters simply could not wrap their head around my incredibly low admin/office budget projections. I put more money in the budget for admin, but won’t use it. We have applications and a full digital process from customer care to ordering to inventory control. Occasionally something gets printed, but not too often.
There has never been a sales tax exemption. You are required to pay Use Taxes, but hardly anyone does.
lol.
What’s a department store?
I have SEVENTY TWO purchases from amazon in three months alone.
ALL my Christmas shopping. 40 bucks in groceries equals no shipping cost and next day delivery.
A dvd here. Cat litter there. But he big things too. VHS to DVD recorder. Nice Espresso machine. Wine Rack. Wine :)
There’s 400 handicapped spots at stores nowadays so you have to park God knows where. You have to deal with other customers, grouchy sales people and checkout counters.
forget about it
Wow, so much winning! I will never get tired of winning!
Oh, wait. Wrong news. I’ll bet this is #fakenews designed to sabotage the #greatness.
But seriously, I don’t see how there could ever be too many office-supply stores. I love office supplies. When I die, they’ll be found, still in their original packages, squirreled in my closet, under the bed, and elsewhere.
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