If you’re going to be involved in a massive, nationwide retail theft scheme, you might as well have a good nickname — like “Baby Arm Johnson” or the “Field Marshall” — for when you get caught. [More]
staples
Staples And Office Depot Circling Each Other Again With Merger In Their Eyes
By 7.31.17
From 2015 to 2016, retail-watchers carefully tracked the proposed merger of Staples and Office Depot, which itself had recently acquired OfficeMax. The Federal Trade Commission ultimately didn’t bless the deal, but the two chains have come back with a new idea: What if Office Depot were to acquire just the retail portion of Staples? [More]
Staples Sells Itself For $6.9B To Private Equity Firm
By 6.29.17
Two months after Staples said it was ready to move on with a new lover following the messy breakup of its engagement to Office Depot, the office supply store is once again heading to the altar, selling itself to private equity firm Sycamore Partners for $6.9 billion. [More]
New Focus On Small Businesses At Staples Means Co-Working Spaces, K-Cups
By 3.29.17
What is Staples? The company’s leaders probably wouldn’t be pleased to hear you say, “The place where I go for printer cartridges when I can’t wait for an online order,” but plans to change consumer perceptions by offering things small and medium businesses need, from office space to coffee pods. [More]
12 Indicted In Massive Organized Retail Theft Ring That Spanned 28 States, 20 Years
By 3.15.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
When someone mentions the takedown of an organized crime ring, the first thing to come to mind is probably something along the lines of The Sopranos. But in New York today, the Attorney General’s office announced the indictment of 12 organized crime members accused of stealing over $12 million in high-end electronics and ink cartridges from national retailers in 28 states. [More]
Staples Still Doing Well After Failed Office Depot Merger; 70 North American Staples Stores To Close
By 3.9.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
While we consumers think of Staples as the brick-and-mortar retailer that we go to when we need a printer cartridge, that’s not how the company thinks of itself. After a disappointing quarter of sales while the company is still trying to get over the breakup of its engagement to Office Depot, its leaders told investors that they plan to focus on services, including delivery to offices and to homes. [More]
Staples And USPS End In-Store Shipping Partnership After NLRB Ruling
By 1.5.17
Back in 2013, the U.S. Postal Service and Staples had a great shared idea: mini post offices in Staples stores would give customers flexibility and the postal service some extra cash. Problem is, the folks staffing these in-store post offices were Staples employees, which didn’t sit will with the union representing postal workers. [More]
Office Depot CEO Roland Smith Stepping Down After Failed Staples Merger
By 8.22.16
The failed marriage of Office Depot and Staples has claimed another CEO. Nearly three months after Staples chief Ron Sargent made his sad exit, the Depot’s top exec Roland Smith announced his departure. [More]
Staples Isn’t Coping So Well After Broken Engagement To Office Depot
By 8.17.16
It’s not easy to find your way after your plans for the future have been turned around. Staples planned to merge with Office Depot, but the Federal Trade Commission stood in their way and kept the merger from happening. Now Staples is having a hard time finding its way by itself, losing $766 million last quarter. [More]
Office Depot To Close 300 More Stores, Expand “Store Of The Future” Pilot
By 8.3.16
There will be 300 fewer Office Depot stores in the U.S. by the end of 2019 as part of the office supply chain’s attempt to cut costs and move on from its failed billion-dollar merger with Staples. [More]
Maybe Focusing On School Supplies Will Help Staples Cope After Failed Merger
By 7.12.16
Here’s a mind-boggling number: this year, American families are predicted to spend $540 billion on back-to-school shopping, or roughly the gross domestic product of Belgium. Where will they spend that money? Staples is still coming off a rough breakup after the Federal Trade Commission stood in the way of its proposed merger with OfficeMax, and really hopes that you spend some of your money there. [More]
Staples Uses Existing Commercial Delivery Fleet To Make Same-Day Online Deliveries
By 6.15.16
Same-day delivery for online orders is a hot trend in retail, and Staples is hopping on the delivery van to compete. The office supplies retailer has a unique advantage, though: they don’t need to team up with a ride-hailing service or hire independent contractors to make deliveries. They already have a fleet of delivery drivrs and vehicles. [More]
Staples CEO Stepping Down After Failed Office Depot Acquisition
By 5.31.16
Staples announced today that its chairman and chief executive officer, Ron Sargent, is giving the public his two-week notice: he’ll be stepping down on June 14, after the company’s next shareholders meeting. Sargent has been CEO of the office superchain since 2002, and has worked for Staples since 1989, when the company was only three years old. [More]
The FTC Has Called Off Its Administrative Trial Of Staples-Office Depot Merger
By 5.19.16
Last week, Staples and Office Depot called off their proposed merger, which would have brought together the biggest and second-biggest office supply retailer into a single paperclip-selling Voltron. Instead, a federal judge granted a temporary injunction, and the companies called off the merger. Now the Federal Trade Commission is officially closing the case. [More]
The Staples-Office Depot Merger Is Dead
By 5.10.16
The opinion issued today by U.S. District Court judge Emmet Sullivan doesn’t actually say that the country’s biggest office supply chain, Staples, can’t acquire the #2 office supply chain, Office Depot. As the Federal Trade Commission requested, the judge granted a preliminary injunction stopping the merger. That prevents the companies from merging until the FTC is done with their administrative antitrust case, but representatives of the two companies previously said that they would break the engagement if the FTC prevailed. [More]
Staples & Office Depot Ask Judge To Toss Antitrust Lawsuit Without Defending Merger
By 4.5.16
Two weeks after the beginning of a federal court hearing on the proposed mega-merger between Office Depot and Staples, the office supply chains’ lawyers have decided not to present a defense against the Federal Trade Commission’s claim that the deal is bad for consumers and businesses. [More]
You Will Soon Be Able To Rent Out Office Space Inside A Staples Store
By 4.4.16
With a growing number of shoppers going online, retailers no longer need the vast acreage of floor space inside their stores — like Hallmark shops inside of JCPenney, or Sears Hometown mini-stores inside of Ace Hardware. And with more people working remotely, it was only time before some retailer got the notion of carving out some rental office space for customers. [More]
Judge Scolds FTC For Maybe Telling Amazon Exec What To Say In Staples-Office Depot Hearing
By 3.24.16
Is Amazon a valid competitor to Staples and Office Depot for the business of corporate office supply customers? In a hearing in the federal lawsuit that the Federal Trade Commission has filed against the two retailers, the government argues that it isn’t yet, and the two stores argue that it is, or soon will be. Yesterday, an attorney for Staples accused the FTC of telling an Amazon executive what to say in his testimony about his company’s plans for office supply domination, earning criticism from the judge. [More]
