http://www.marketwatch.com/story/staples-shares-surge-on-report-of-6-billion-acquisition-by-sycamore-2017-06-21?link=sfmw_tw
My guess is they will gut B&M stores and focus on Dotcom and BtoB.
Shira will get her totally undeserved payday and most others will get a pink slip.
What real estate??? As far as I know, all of the stores are leased.
This is where the sell off of real estate begins. It is all about property when companies are purchased. I was part of the "music retail" when it still existed and then Best Buy bought us out but they were doing it to turn it around they raided the customer base and store locations and then sold us off to another financial company based in Florida which worked for a year and then they liquidated it all.
Selling tech was a way to expand the business in the early 2000's. Now it is a loss leader. I agree , take tech out and focus on basic supplies and copy center. I'd probably keep the best selling inks and toners on hand though and make the ones for old printers exclusive to dot com.
Staples approach to tech is 100% backward. They either sell hardware at a net loss and expect high school or college kids to force all the overpriced attachments on customers (with no commission), or sell accessories at such high markups it's laughable. $79.99 for a 100' Cat 5 cable available on Amazon for around $10.
Staffing is the biggest challenge. There are still stores that could be profitable if they were able to focus on customers rather than on corporate mandates. I walked into a store and there were 5 other customers looking for assistance while the ONLY employee on the sales floor was chained to a table, demonstrating their Liquid Armor screen protector. I asked how many he sold and he replied 1 for the week. So $30 sale and $15 margin. In the mean time in the half hour I was there at least 3 people were not served and walked out empty handed.
Say good bye to half the stores as soon as leases run out. That will be the slowing of closings otherwise this firm if it had not lease obligations would close 600 immediately. Look for them to possibly shop dot com to Amazon. The skinny on this this company is the are out to "save" retailers they take over. Dream on in this economy Staples needs to be reduced by 50% in size and the remaining stores should have no more than 5000 sq ft. Tech should be eliminated, copy expanded. They are hooked into leases the questions remains can they buyout leases to defer costs and losses of non performing stores. IF and IF ONLY they can closings could be numerous after the buyout happens.
“Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that’s how it always starts.
Then later there’s running and screaming.”
C'mon folks where's the mystery?
What do we expect from a Bain Capital alum and Ivy League pedigree?
Welcome to the eye opening experience of dealing with this type of east coast hyper competitive self serving scum. Hey, at least their qualified for a cabinet post as DC leadership is trying to privatize everything as well.
Good luck to us all.