Staples closing 225 stores, what's their long-term future?
 

With Staples reporting such a bad quarter and announcing closing of 225 stores by 2015 to save $500 million, it makes me wonder what the long-term implications are for not only Staples but the whole office supply category we all know and love.

Anybody care to speculate what the landscape will look like in 5-10 years? And what it will mean to the 5X office supply bonus.

LOL...silly question. How do you know the 5x on office supply bonus will last for another 5-10 years? I think the 5x office supply bonus will either be nerfed or cut long before Staples files for bankruptcy if ever. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Silly question? I don't know if the 5X bonus will last 5-10 years. You don't either. What makes ink attractive is the 5X bonus, so if they cut the 5X, there will be much less incentive to keep ink.

My question is relating to Staples and their long term viability as a company. My opinion is they are starting the downward slide and will end up going the way of Borders and eventually Best Buy.

If you think it's silly, go and ask questions about booking one way award travel on delta. LOL

Ugh..don't get me started with Delta. I have like 12K points in Delta Skymiles that are useless since I thought that they would be good for a one way saver award travel ticket...LOL. But nooooooo I have to redeem it for 25K.

You're right I don't know if the 5x bonus will last another 5-10 years either but take a look at the history of how long a lot of these 5x bonus categories have lasted for a particular card.

If you think about some of the CCs like the Amex BC card, technically it has been shut down and replaced with another Amex BCE and BCP and it wasn't until recent that folks can still sign up for the old Amex BC. Citi Forward with the 5x restaurants & amazon....shut down. Hilton Honors Amex...not totall nerfed but 6% drugstores removed as of May 2013 but still good for 5% restaurants/gas. There are probably plenty of other examples.

My point is instead of worrying about Staples shutting down which it won't for awhile (they are not like Lehman Brothers or GM level trouble yet), you should be more worried of when Chase could be nerfing the 5x bonus or nerfing the limit eligible for the 5x bonus on office supply stores. Right now that limit is 50,000.

Agreed, I hope chase keeps the 5x forever, but you're probably right and they will nerf the 5x in some way. As for your delta woes, losing 12k skypesos is nothing compared to what some elite members are feeling after delta went and bent over pretty much 99% of their elites. I've never had status with delta, but I'm often stuck with them and their sky pesos. Good news for you, next year you should be able to get that one way award ticket.

They have closed loads of branches in the UK as well. Looks like the beginning of the end.

To be honest, they where expensive, lots of alternatives supplied the same thing at a cheaper price.

Starting in 2015 you will be able to redeem for one way travel on Delta.

If you haven't been following the news, Delta will allow one-way awards starting at 12.5K beginning 1/1/15. Good luck finding availability though...

It shouldn't be hard to keep those points from expiring and earn another 500 then burn it all.

For 12,500 points? Yeah right....I doubt it. By then my Skymiles will expire by then. Delta needs to stop lying that their calendar allows Saver awards for 12,500 miles on weekdays and show me some darn choices already. I chose a Tuesday afternoon as a test trial and it still showed 25K points to redeem....freaking ridiculous. Why does it have to be until 1/1/15. Its not like Delta can't fix their system to allow points now. My points should still be valid then but still...unbelievable.

Staples closing 225 stores, what's their long-term future?
 

maybe they'll add other utilities such as power and water in the future? Always a different way to look at things.

Most brick and mortar retail segments are shrinking, other than food. This is a natural consequence of the presence of internet and big-box general retailers. Office Depot and OfficeMax are merging. Perhaps Staples will merge with the combined company one day, after losing more market share to Amazon, Walmart, etc.

My guess is that Staples will probably be around in 2024, although perhaps a bit smaller than it is now. Kmart started shrinking decades ago, and it's still here.

Sad news!

well since Delta miles never expire, you should be fine waiting.

and hopefully Staples will start having some sales to boost short term revenue. I could use some more spending on my Ink.

Seeing as Staples makes most of their money out of their Copy & Print Center, their horrible EASYTech sales/services and insurance scams, they should have seen this coming.

nevermind