Corporate name, founding date, founding leaders. Staples, Inc. was originally founded by Thomas Stemberg in November of 1986 in Boston, Massachusetts (Schnaars, 1998, pp. 79-80). The idea of taking advantage of office supplies and this niche market came to Stemberg in 1985 while preparing a business proposal intended for another purpose (“Staples, Inc.,” n.d.). During the 1980s, if office supplies were needed there was not one outlet to go to in addition to prices were not affordable (Schnaars, 1988, pp. 79-80). While laying the groundwork and researching to go forth with plans, Stemberg set out to change the office supplies world, starting with presenting to others in hopes of gaining investments to establish everything necessary in place. …show more content…
While trying to build a Staples empire major events and incidents happened that paved the path and triggered interruptions along the way. After being in thought and planning of just a year, the first store was opened in 1986 and has successfully expanded over the years (“Staples, Inc.,” n.d.). Due to several locations not performing as well as they had anticipated in North America, drastic measures had to be taken. In 2015, 225 stores were closed, in 2016 50 stores were closed, and so far since March of this year it was anticipated that 70 stores would most likely be closed as well (“Company Profile,” n.d.). Staples was able to successfully acquire other companies such as Quill Corporation in 2002 and Corporate Express in 2008 (“Staples, Inc.,” n.d.). During 2015, Staples and Office Depot agreed to a merger, but while awaiting approval from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) it was postponed until early 2016. Unfortunately a federal judge denied the merger and therefore preventing the two companies merging (Kendall and FitzGerald, …show more content…
Staples has made a name for themselves and is the leader in their industry, a close competitor of Staples is Office Depot. Other competitors to be considered are corporate chains that profile office supplies alongside other products within their inventory. Additional competitors can include, but are not limited to Amazon, Walmart, Target, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and Costco (“Company Profile,” n.d.). Statement of the Problem Staples, Inc. was once known to be a major competitor in the office supplies industry. Initially they started out with wanting to provide office supplies to customers available in one location and at affordable prices. Somewhere along the way it looks as if those simple visions have been harder to maintain with the ever changing demands of the society that exists today. And Staples have not been able to maintain their level of success as how they may have anticipated they would have. One of the most pressing issues that have been affecting Staples is the inability to change something that is bigger than themselves; as in the fact their industry is diminishing and there is not much of anything they can do about it (Moskowitz, 2013). With Staples being in the business of office supplies most of the inventory soon enough will no longer matter as much. This is due to the technological culture currently in existence and everything is moving away from the traditional pen and paper