Staples To Buy Office Depot For $6.3 Billion 105
An anonymous reader writes: Today Staples announced plans to buy Office Depot in a deal worth $6.3 billion. This is a huge consolidation within the office supply industry. Office Depot and OfficeMax were the second- and third-biggest suppliers when they merged in 2013. Adding those to the enormity of Staples would effectively bring the U.S. under a single office supply chain. "The move is expected to draw scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, though regulators have been increasingly willing to approve retail mergers in light of burgeoning e-commerce competition. ... This isn't the first time Staples has tried to buy Office Depot. In 1997, the FTC derailed Staples' acquisition of its rival as anticompetitive. By 2013, though, the agency's view had shifted. When the FTC allowed Office Depot to buy OfficeMax, it said the advent of online retailing ensured competition in the market for office supplies. Consumers today also rely more heavily on big-box chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for office products, the commission said."
No problem getting this merger passed (Score:5, Funny)
They'll just push the Easy Button and it will fly through the FTC, right?
Re:No problem getting this merger passed (Score:5, Funny)
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Push it real good.
Obligatory YouTube Link [youtube.com]
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Monopoly or no monopoly, larger corporations have proven to be very unhealthy for society, democracy and the economy. There should really be a limit upon how large they get. Seriously, governments should be considering strangling wall street to death in favour of rebuilding main street.
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Eh does anyone even read the article? lol
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What monopoly?
The monopoly happens when Staples, Office Depot, and Office Max banded together still aren't strong enough to survive the onslaughts of Wal-Mart/Sam's and Costco on the B&M side and Amazon (and maybe a little Quill) on the web side, and now there are 3 more empty buildings in town to keep company the places that used to be local hardware stores and lumberyards before Lowe's and Home Depot came to town.
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The monopoly happens when Staples, Office Depot, and Office Max banded together still aren't strong enough to survive the onslaughts of Wal-Mart/Sam's and Costco on the B&M side
2 of your 3 examples are not even retail stores.
And I'm not going to boo-hoo competition from Amazon or Quill. Montgomery Ward and Sears became mail-order powerhouses more than 150 years ago. Nothing has changed except for the way in which the catalogs are delivered and payments are made. Everything else is still THE SAME.
Great (Score:1)
Re:Great (Score:4, Insightful)
How so? There is a lot of competition in this space. In the Northeast you are probably familiar with WB Mason, which does not use the retail store model. If you are a consumer, Walmart sells toner for most home printers (and obviously paper as well). For businesses, there are plenty of "Dunder Mifflins" out there. Costco, Sam's Club, etc. And then there is the explosion of internet-only office supply companies.
Re:Great? (Score:2)
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Amazon with Prime is another serious competitor.
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Amazon in the past ten years has changed a lot of retail. Prime is ten years old now.
I can get printer ink delivered either the next day, or the day after for less than the cost of Staples, and there is no order min.
So a $15 ink cart shows up just when I need it.
Re:Great (Score:4, Insightful)
I am a small business owner, and I have to say that this is not the case. The Internet is the great equalizer. I can buy toner and paper online from NewEgg, Amazon, Costco, W.B. Mason, or Walmart. If Staples decided to jack up the prices, then I'd simply order somewhere else. I don't like splitting up my vendors, either. If I order toner and paper from one company, then I'm usually going to take my coffee and other stationery business somewhere else. The vendors all know this so they're always trying to use paper as a loss-leader to get your business on the other items.
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If you planned ahead you bought that online already. Far better prices on paper and toner Via Amazon plus I dont have to carry it. The fedex guy does.
So, Staples Is Evil? (Score:3)
enormity
inôrmd/
noun
1.
the great or extreme scale, seriousness, or extent of something perceived as bad or morally wrong.
"a thorough search disclosed the full enormity of the crime"
2.
a grave crime or sin.
"the enormities of the regime"
synonyms: wickedness, evil, vileness, baseness, depravity
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If you had clicked the "show more" button you would have gotten to:
enormity
inôrmd/
noun
noun: enormity; plural noun: enormities
1.
the great or extreme scale, seriousness, or extent of something perceived as bad or morally wrong.
"a thorough search disclosed the full enormity of the crime"
(in neutral use) the large size or scale of something.
"I began to get a sense of the enormity of the task"
synonyms: immensity, hugeness; More
I clicked the More button and got... (Score:2)
outrageousness, monstrousness, hideousness, heinousness, horror, atrocity; villainy, cruelty, inhumanity, mercilessness, brutality, savagery, viciousness.
Wiktionary states: Enormity is frequently used as a synonym for "enormousness," rather than "great wickedness." This is frequently considered an error; the words have different roots in French, and radically different accepted meanings
As far as I can tell, the vernacular usage of enormity to which you refer is a rather recent addition to the definition, an
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As far as I can tell, the vernacular usage of enormity to which you refer is a rather recent addition to the definition, and first came into usage during the media coverage of Bush Jr's lavish inauguration, during which reporters referred to the "enormity" of the proceedings.
Perhaps you might just try a basic internet search and you might find out how wrong you are [arrantpedantry.com].
Your "incorrect" usage was first recorded in the late 1700s and in recent decades constitutes roughly 75% of all occurrences of the word. This prescriptivist battle was likely lost more than a half-century ago. Heck, I remember Obama using the "wrong" meaning (i.e., hugeness) in his inaugural address.
I only use the word to mean a "great evil," but pretending that it only means that or that the "hugeness" thing
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Typically "enormous" appears to be used in the sense of "very large", and "enormity" in the sense of "very evil". I rarely see "enormity" used to mean "great size".
Next RadioShack (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Next RadioShack (Score:5, Insightful)
That said, I don't have a good feeling about the decrease in the number of office supplies stores near my home, which WILL decrease my options.
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I think Staples vs. Office Depot/Office Max retail locations is similar to Home Depot vs. Lowes. In some areas, one is better, while in others, a different one is better.
Where I live, Staples has multiple locations that are clean, organized, well-stocked, and always have customers. They have copy/printing services, UPS shipping, etc. There's only one Office Depot location, which is dirty, in a way oversized space (so when you walk in the front door, there's about 30 feet of empty space before you get to
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Is anyone else surprised Staples isn't bankrupt?
I am surprised. I predicted their demise when they bought the naming rights to the "Staples Center" sports arena in Los Angeles. Wasting capital on such frivolities is often a sign of impending doom.
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I was going to say the same thing about our local Office Depot. I go in there maybe once every 1-2 years, and it's always just about empty. And I f it wasn't for their UPS desk, I bet 80% of that already sparse customer base would not be there.
I've got nothing against this particular company, but I think time has passed them by.
Re:Next RadioShack (Score:4, Informative)
Apparently 'no one' bought $22.7B worth of stuff last year, with EBITDA of $1.46B.
Re:Next RadioShack (Score:5, Informative)
To contrast, Radio Shack is a cellphone kiosk that once sold electronics.
This is about like wondering how Bank of America can stay in business if nobody uses safety deposit boxes anymore.
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I think people go there but they don’t spend time browsing. They know they just need printer ink and a ream of paper, and they need them today. There's not much in the way of entertainment or impulse items to distract shoppers and extend their visit time.
(Personally I enjoy browsing office supplies -- something about the orderly arrangement of useful objects is pleasing to me -- but that's probably not entirely normal.)
Their buying clout alone should end this deal. (Score:2)
No way should any company of that size and market share have such buying clout with the supply chain to which they are distributing. And that says nothing even of the consumer perspective.
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Except that this isn't the 1990s anymore. You can get supplies from all sorts of online distributors and Walmart (of course). There is still competition. Better competition, in fact. We just have the perception that there is this thing called an "Office Supply Store" and that owning all of those means that office supplies are now under a monopoly. The reality is that a specialized brick and mortar supply store like that is a concept that is no longer the most cost effective means of getting office supp
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The brick and mortar stores can't stay in business because of the occasional need to pick something up like that same day, especially when there is competition from own market AND from the likes of Walmart. Most businesses, the bread and butter of their revenues, are getting deliveries in bulk. Stores like Walmart, Target and similar can often cover the one time needs of stuff that may run out. It would proba
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This shouldn't be a problem with Staples would be competing with other big freaking businesses. Costco, Amazon, Newegg, and Walmart are all competitors with Staples for office supplies. If Staples decided to jack up the price, then consumers wouldn't wait to move their business. And if Staples wanted to play hardball with their vendors, then the vendors would simply take their business to other outlets. I buy lots of paper, toner, and K-Cups. Hammermill, Brother, and Keurig aren't going to get pushed around
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Hammermill, Brother, and Keurig aren't going to get pushed around by anyone.
Don't be so sure. Those UPC barcodes on everything came from Wal-Mart's foisting them off on anyone who even dreamed of seeing their products in the Walton stores.
There's a lawnmower manufacturer who balked, because they didn't want their quality standards watered down by fiat just so they could be an Everyday Low Price in the Wal-Mart garden shop, but a lot of companies aren't so devoted.
New name: Staples Depot, Office Staples (Score:5, Funny)
what? (Score:2)
Re:what? (Score:5, Informative)
Huh? They merged. The new company is called Office Depot. Office Max no longer exists. What is so hard to understand?
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Office Max still exists as a brand name owned by Office Depot. They never rebranded or changed the signage on the Office Max locations in my area.
Interestingly, they kept most of the Office Max locations in this area because the Office Depot locations were in old, run-down failed-big-box-store locations with bad traffic patterns and poor maintenance. The Office Max locations here were mostly in the shiny new shopping plazas. They never bothered to rebrand any of them, and their seasonal sales floor signage
Just a theory (Score:5, Interesting)
I think if someone were to create a simulation model of a truly free market with no regulation, and seed it with hundreds (thousands) of little businesses to start with, given enough time, you'll end up single monopoly that controls every industry, service, and product.
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Generally speaking, that is correct - the end game for a completely free market is monopoly.
Though, in the retail sector, I'm fairly certain there's plenty of competition in office supplies. Sure for walk-in business there's Staples and Offic
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We have that. It's called "Monopoly [straightdope.com]."
Re:Just a theory (Score:4, Informative)
I think if someone were to create a simulation model of a truly free market with no regulation, and seed it with hundreds (thousands) of little businesses to start with, given enough time, you'll end up single monopoly that controls every industry, service, and product.
It seems to depend on what the business is. If a business is capital-intensive, commodity-based and can benefit from economies of scale chances are that, yes, a positive feedback loop will be established and, as the old maxim goes, "nothing succeeds like success".
On the other hand, not all businesses are driven solely on price. Multiple big players exist in such things as fast food and pizza joints, but within the big chains, I'll avoid MacDonalds and hit Burger King because to me McD's milkshakes taste like library paste. And the local neighborhood pizzaria beats Papa John's 20 ways from Sunday. Because what they're selling is a commodity only in broad terms.
There exist also Natural Monopolies where it's essentially a Buyer's or Seller's Market. A classic example is a product that requires laying down underground cables to individual residences. It's simply not tolerable to have 37 different companies rooting around in the dirt all the time, so the "last mile" belongs to a chosen few.
Stuff like this is why auto-quacking that The Market Solves Everything makes one look like an idiot. There are so many exceptions even before the big mean government steps in. In fact, a true Free Market is a pretty rare (and often short-lived) bird.
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If by "no regulation" you mean people do whatever they want (hire professional assassins, etc.), then that might be true, I guess, for commodities markets. You'd have to study the cocaine distribution or heroin distribution "cartels". But in that scenario the corporation itself would have no control against internal theft etc., you may not ever know who's in charge, even civil law would be in question, and you would wind up with chaos (like ISIS or the drug trade).
If you are just postulating a "rigged" s
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Crap (Score:1)
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There's this awesome invention called "the internet", where you can find exactly what you're looking for and purchase it without ever having to go into a store. It works especially well for times you're looking for specific products instead of just browsing. There's even a great deal of competition and independent sellers that help keep prices down.
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No, actually, I'd probably go to Target if my mouse broke. They don't have everything Office * has, but they have most of the stuff I'd need in sooner than two or three business days.
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That's why I often resort to Amazon. But since I have a Staples less than 2 miles from my house, it would be nice if they carried more than 2 brands of pen or whatever.. and I wouldn't have to wait for it.. and pay shipping as well. Same with Home Depot too, Lowes carries all the little odds and ends I can never find at a Home Depot.
Doesn't matter to me in the least (Score:5, Funny)
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I get all my office supplies by stealing them from work.
Chances are your office buys its supplies from Staples.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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3 companies became 2... (Score:2)
Then 2 became 1.
And finally 1 goes to 0.
arc supplies more commonly available? (Score:2)
Hopefully this means I won't have to drive as far to get my Arc refills.
box o'chains (Score:1)
It'd be ironic if... (Score:1)
Destroy the Competition (Score:1)
That was easy!
So now Office Depot = Office Max = Staples... (Score:1)
I did not realize until just now that Office Depot and Office Max had merged (or were always the same to begin with).
So we are left with one major office outlet... Does competition work in any industry anymore?
Pat
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"In a dog-eat-dog world, you eventually end up with one very fat dog" - Don't remember who said it, read it on a forum.
New Motto (Score:1)
Of course it will be approved (Score:2)
Anybody else remember RICHH? (Score:1)
There's this annoying ad for Staples office supply store on
tv. I call up directory assistance, get their number, and give
'em a buzz.
"Hello, is this Staples?"
"Yes it is. How may I help you."
Too eager to please.
"I was just wondering how you came up with the name of the
store. I mean, you sell staples, right?"
"Yes we do. We
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Hmm, labor force participation rate is about where it was at the end of Regan's first term, but if you drill into the details [tamucc.edu] you'd see that most of the hit is to 16-24 year olds, and it's largely been because the 55+ rate is higher than it's been in 40+ years, basically the boomers won't retire so there's little room at the bottom. The boomers refusing to retire wouldn't be a problem in an expanding economy, but in one that went through a hundred year recession followed by a rather flat recovery it's going