Bumping this up: 3rd window restructuring, layoffs, new positions, revised compensation and PA policies - In early 2015 sales managers and tech center supervisors in stores below 8m will be laid off, if you're between 6 & 8 your part time supervisor goes full time.Tech centers averaging below 5k a week will lose supervisor and gain additional tech. Several hundred stores have been assessed as non desirable, following the initial wave of closures we'll announce market consolidation strategies, lastly despite the rumors Staples leadership is not considering an ODP merger at this time, our debt ratio would be too high and leadership is uncomfortable with this.
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Websites operate on razor thin margins and with no stores we have no competitive advantage over Amazon let alone Wal-Mart (online rising star) after years of slipping profits and company wide reduction we become defunct, that's how.
How can .com go bankrupt? It's ultra profitable. If we close the stores and continue to manage .com properly there should be issues.
Cash flow doesn't equal solvency, they're ability finance debt is seriously hindered by their recent financial performance which ultimately affects othervretail avenues and costs market share. Will they go bankrupt, eventually sure, but they'll close all but a few stores first and drag out death like a terminal cancer.
We are holding over $1 Billion in cash. Plus have $1 Billion in available credit. No where near Chapter 11, but it is clear the company has no interest in running 1500 stores. In one day it takes 1500 stores to equal one day of .com sales. Far too many variables in running big square boxes. Plan is: in 10 years to have 250 showcase stores and have 90% of sales from .com. It is what it is. There is no secret here. Don't let your baby grow up to be a Staples manager. On the other hand: Office Depot IS interested in running 1400 big box stores. They are just trying to figure out how to match .com sales.
SPLS is going down fast. Investors need to jump ship before everything blows up in their faces ala-Borders and Linens-N-Things. They're closing a BUNCH of stores in the south, too - but we all know that some of those closures may just be blips on the radar, because they will eventually announces that they're filing CH11.