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Staples Agrees to Buy Office Depot for About $6.3 Billion

bloomberg.com

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Re: Staples Agrees to Buy Office Depot for About $6.3 Billion

#21

Post by shiftpgdn »

jonknee wrote: post #14
bane wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea how they keep the lights on. Whenever I go in, usually during peak business hours, it's unusual if there's even another customer in there. I'm usually just buying a pack of cheap pens or something, maybe once every 6 months. Many moons ago, it used to be an underappreciated place to buy cheap computer parts, but even SD cards are grossly overpriced these days.

Staples has a shockingly large (at least to me) online business. They're the second largest online retailer in the US (second only to Amazon): http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/27/staples-is-...

I use them to buy toner for printers at work. Free next day AM delivery and they usually have better prices than amazon.

Re: Staples Agrees to Buy Office Depot for About $6.3 Billion

#22

Post by shiftpgdn »

brianbreslin wrote: post #18

In 18 months we've gone from 3 major national office supply players to 1. What is driving this? Amazon? Are the old office supply catalogs like Quill still around?

Quill is still around. Our secretary orders all our office supplies through them through an account they've had open since the 90s.

Re: Staples Agrees to Buy Office Depot for About $6.3 Billion

#25

Post by inmygarage »

These businesses are most certainly NOT "on their way out". Office supplies is one of the largest categories in ecommerce. Staples and Office Depot are each doing billions in annual sales online. The idea that Amazon has already won in this category is simply not true (yet, but still).

Staples did ~$10b in online sales last year and Office Depot did ~$6b. Online only.

Staples sells more online in pure dollars than Apple, Walmart or Dell.

This is not Radio Shack.

I think this is a really smart move for Staples.

Source: https://www.internetretailer.com/2013/05/24/big-and-getting-...

Re: Staples Agrees to Buy Office Depot for About $6.3 Billion

#27

Post by wil421 »

untog wrote: post #3

Normally I'd be opposed to/worried about mergers like this, but I feel like these businesses are on their way out (certainly in the physical retail world) so this particular merger might not be so bad. After all, they have a lot of competition from Amazon and the like.

Recently I bought a router from Staples because I had 15% cash back if I used my debit card. Found the same router on Amazon.com and they have matched 110% of the price (must be sold by Amazon). So I actually got my router for less than Amazon's price.

So I think they are stepping up their game to compete online.

Re: Staples Agrees to Buy Office Depot for About $6.3 Billion

#28

Post by abfan1127 »

vonmoltke wrote: post #15
hbhakhra wrote: post #4

This will be interesting to see. Yeah these office supply stores have competition from online retailers, but I would assume they make a good chunk of their revenue from corporate/education customers. Since that is their biggest revenue stream, I wonder how that aspect of the industry would be affected by the merger.

There are plenty of competitors for the large customers. Few consumers have ever heard of them, though, because they only do large accounts. Plus, Sam's Club has been on a major push over the past several years to attract small and medium business customers. They will be a serious competitor for Staples Depot Max in that segment.

I really hope they adopt that name, Staples Depot Max!
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