Thread regarding Staples Inc. layoffs

The Death of Retail

A few quick points; Staples cash cow was ALWAYS North American retail. One nugget inside that, that drove nearly ALL the companies profit was Division 1. "ALL" and I mean "ALL" the programs, new ideas, startups etc. have done ZERO to replace the loss of PROFIT from North American retail and nothing proposed will do it either. Big Box retail is O V E R !

So does anyone think .com will save the day? REALLY! Think again! Amazon is a light year ahead and accelerating.

In short, arguing about whether this division or that will survive is fun, in the short term, but when you look at the balance sheet it's clear that Staples has no where to go and no where to hide. I'm revising my SPLS number for the end of April to 4.75.

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| 1161 views | | 4 replies (last January 28, 2016) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+FCFqrqj

4 replies (most recent on top)

This is my take on the whole thing. I started with Staples back in 1993. Back then, there was no Staples.com, and of course you had Office Max, and Office Depot. Back then all 3 were doing well, plus the stock was doing great. Staples rewarded their employees with bonuses, and that helped sales and profits. As time went on, they got skimpy with the bonuses, and then later stopped them, and just rewarded the General Managers. While doing this, they wanted the workers to be so happy to be working for them, without incentives. Their were many bad decisions they made during the years, one of them was not selling Apple products when they were really popular. While they were top dog over Max and Depot, did they capitalize over it? Hell no, they stab the workers in the back, made you work with a skeleton crew, most of the time, which happened when I transferred to a Staples in SC. I was blessed to retire recently, and I couldn't wait to get out. The 401k helped me to do it a little early, but I feel for people I left behind. This is a different world now and Amazon.com is king. Staples waited too late to put the .com to work for them, and look what's happened to the stock. With the layoffs, and stock going down to 9 dollars a share from 13, the writing is on the wall. People are ordering on line now, they don't need Staples. I bought a laptop on line, didn't have to waist gas to go anywhere, knew what I wanted and got it. People are smarter shoppers now.

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Post ID: @3xld+FCFqrqj

You're right there. I always heard from middle management quarter in and quarter out, "as retail goes, so goes commercial". Retail carried the entire company for years. It's ashamed that what was a great company at one time, just fell apart before our eyes, due to greed from the top.

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Post ID: @zrh+FCFqrqj

The only way Staples will change is with a large amount of turnover on the top floors of Framingham. The current guys have no f---ing clue how to save the business and are just causing more damage.

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Post ID: @hoz+FCFqrqj

Since 1999, Staples' cash cow has been Quill. It's been the most profitable part of the whole company. The most profitable part of Quill was Medical Arts Press, and their most profitable part was Smilemakers. Now that Smilemakers was sold to Oriental Trading, and MAP has been rolled into Quill as a vertical market, its sales are tanking. How long before the Quill is rolled up into Staples as one of their exclusive or private brands?

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Post ID: @xev+FCFqrqj

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