OfficeMax Closing 110 U.S. Retail Stores

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-officemax-stores,1,6917277.story?coll=chi-business-hed

OfficeMax Inc., struggling to keep up with its competition in the crowded office supplies business, said Tuesday it will close 110 retail superstores across the United States and make other restructuring moves in the first quarter.

The company also said it will close its wood-polymer building materials plant in Elma, Wash., and five retail stores in Canada as part of a shake-up that will result in $187 million in pretax charges.

The moves represent the latest attempt by the Itasca-based company to shake out of the doldrums after what its largest investor has blasted as a "dismal" financial and operating performance recently.

It wasn't immediately clear if the restructuring was enough to satisfy that investor, K Capital Partners LLC, whose managing director, Brian Steck, demanded changes in November in a scathing letter to the board of directors. Steck's office in Boston did not immediately return a telephone message Tuesday.

[SlipperySlope]

1. That's competition for you

I much prefer our local OfficeDepot over OfficeMax. It is cleaner, better stocked, and better located. I also like Staples, but we don't have one here.

[Lorien]

7. Staples is uber RED

Office Depot and OfficeMax are somewhat red also, but Staples is managed by hardcore RWers who contribute heavily to the GOP. Shop there, and you can be sure of where you're money is going.

[Pale Blue Dot]

8. Do you have proof of that?

I have not seen anything at all about that, and I'm in a position to know.

[mcscajun]

10. Here's the Buy Blue Info on Staples.

86% to Republicans, 14% to Democrats.
They don't have comprehensive info on them yet. Maybe you can help them out.

http://www.buyblue.org/node/1887/view/summary

OfficeMax and Office Depot are no better, at 88% each to Republicans.

[0007]

19. Thanks for the tip. Of course I've seen where HP donated

large sums of money to junior.

[NanceGreggs]

2. All of these companies ...

... closing down, or cutting back on employees - in this GREAT ECONOMY? Wow, that just doesn't seem to make sense somehow.

Somebody must have gotten something wrong here ...

[politicaholic]

3. Toys r' us, Officemax, Kmart...sure, Walmart has nothing to do with it...

Walmart won't be happy until the whole country is in their employ and dependent on Walmart.

[cmdrzog]

11. Actually Office Max

Staples and Office Depot are responsible for the destruction of an entire industry on their own. Not only did there price cutting close many retailers of office supplies but the American manufacturers of these products became brands of Chinese made products of inferior quality. The retailing jobs they created were low paying compared to what they destroyed and the manufacturing loss was a total loss. They may not be Walmart but they hurt plenty of people.

[area51]

18. Welcome to DU, cmdrzog. (n/t)

[DainBramaged]

21. Hear hear

The big box superstores now include Staples, and they leave consumers no alternative to buy simple school supplies for their kids either anymore.

No one else is left in America who owns that little corner stationer/card store anymore. Where we went for cigarettes and lottery tickets and met our friends in town.

A whole way of life is over.:cry:

[orleans]

25. horribly sarcastic reply: Ah, stop your whining

it's called PROGRESS! at least the kids nowadays can still stand outside these superstores and smoke their cigarettes. Let them go to starbucks to meet their friends--or the mall!!!


sorry. i certainly don't mean any of that--it was just an angry and ignorant reply i can just imagine some asshole saying (and in my imagination that asshole was a short, heavy-set, white male, balding, sixties, with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. i have no idea who he is though. i'm a writer--i have a slightly overactive imagination.)

and i agree with your post. an entire way of life is over--and it's very sad.

[orleans]

24. very good point. welcome to DU. (smile) n/t

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. There were too many of these kind of places. And the prices

were getting out of hand too. It seems like stores like that would never exist at all unless there were a bunch of stupid investors with more money than sense.

[SpiralHawk]

5. But, but, but...BushCo Experts agree: "Everything is just fine."

So please move along. There is nothing to see here.

On the Bright Side: the Big BushCo administration expects choco-rations to be increased sometime in the next millennium.

[Gatchaman]

6. Office Depot is far superior

I remember when Office Max had a banner up that said "HP Computers are here!" There was a grand total of one computer in the store. Not one in stock, but one model.

[mongo]

9. A lot of these big box retailers

Get their boards filled with real estate and construction moguls. K-mart is a prime example.

Everytime the company is doing decently, they overbuild new stores, drive the comapny into a hole and close stores or declare bankruptcy.

But the board members still get paid, get all the profit from the actual building of new stores while the stockholders of the retailer take it up the ass.

[footinmouth]

12. Another one bites the dust?

Geez, all my favorite stores are getting the hell out of Dodge. I'm still dealing with losing Media Play, now my Office Max too? The closest Staples is 2 hours away.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. I stopped shopping there when they never sent me a rebate

they had promised. I called Office Max and they blamed the manufacturer. But the rebate form clearly stated that it was an Office Max rebate, not the manufacturer's. After a year of trying to get my rebate, I finally gave up and wrote them a letter explaining why I wouldn't shop there anymore and they never even bothered to reply. So they lost my business.

[WLKjr]

14. The OfficeMax near me sucks a royal big one

I never find any good prices there, let alone anything worth buying that is in stock. They don't keep up well with what people want.

[sendero]

17. Same here..

.... of the big 3, OfficeMax you could count on to dissapoint. They are FAMOUS for not having stuff in stock. You go to the display, figure out what you want, grab the little slip of paper and 10 fucking minutes later they tell you they are out.

Good riddance to bad rubbish :)

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. I live nearby and used to work at the industrial park...

...where the building materials plant is located. They bought it about a year ago from Boise Cascade. It's only 60 jobs, but the community has had a long suffering economy and we had high hopes for it.

The plant was intended to make a premium residential siding product from recycled plastic and wood waste. It was a good idea but they never really did get the bugs worked out of the process.

[hibbing]

16. was just in one

I was in one after Christmas, ready to buy a digicam. The cameras were by the "Customer Service" area, some guy came by and asked me if I needed help, I said yeah, he would be right back. He came back couldn't really answer my questions, then just walked off to the registers and started checking the few people in there out. I said as I walked out the door I was ready to buy a camera but couldn't get any service, good luck! Guess my wishes of good luck isn't a good omen. I feel bad for the people that will be losing their jobs in this GREAT ECONOMY according to our fearless leader.

peace

[JusticeForAll]

20. Bummer

I hate when any office supply store closes. Of the biggies, these guys are the priciest (their bargain bins are laughable...), and they usually have the most surly help. It's still a bummer.

[truth2power]

22. Gotta say, there's an Office Max near me

where I've been shopping for years. I've bought printers, a computer desk and lots of small items. Never had a problem. Good prices, and I've never had trouble with receiving a rebate.

The sales people are knowledgeable and always willing to help. Maybe the quality of the store has something to do with the management policy, I don't know. I heard a rumor months ago that they were going to close. Sorry to see them go.

Not trying to uphold them. just stating my experience. :shrug:

[1932]

23. I guess with all the McJobs, there aren't that many offices anymore.

[Gardeaux08]

26. LOL

Now wait until you hear the punchline...

OfficeMax has small regional distribution centers that ship out the merchandise that is purchased online. But they have three big warehouses called PowerMax. There is one in Las Vegas, another outside of Birmingham AL, and one in my back yard in Pennsylvania. I worked for them, as did most people in this area, as a contracted associate. Later I was promoted to supervising the contracted employees there. The majority of the workforce is the hourly contracted labor who are paid a whopping $9.00/hr (and that is a recent pay raise...they were getting paid between 8 and 8.35) not getting benefits, had to work like dogs to get vacation time, working 12 hour shifts with mandatory OT. It's hard work on your feet, your back, your mind. They would have monthly facility meetings where they would pull names of "Star Employees" and they would reward them with whatever they pulled from the damaged bin. And the only way to get ahead was the either be related to someone or willingly fuck the boss.

If this company can't turn a profit on slave labor, they deserve to bite the dust. The real shame is when they close, which is what they threatened when the mention of unionization was in the air, it's only going to make the crime rate go higher in my hometown.

[sweetheart]

27. internet competition

I haven't been in a shop like that for years. If i need some
office supplies, its all online, and its easier to have it
delivered straight to where it's needed rather than shuttling
supplies myself.

I can't see any long term future for some sorts of retailing.
The internet pricing is cheaper by not having to maintain a
storefront, and by this process, i'll admit to having shopped
in stores to "touch and feel" an item, then go home and order
it cheaper on the internet.

Were i a shop like that, i would review my business model based
on this, and start stocking a deeper catalog. I prefer better
papers sometimes, super thin velums or thick stocks, things that
these crap retailers don't stock, but its really office supplies.
Just they are the cheap-crap end, and they could eat the lunch of
the upmarket vendors if they included a fat tail.

Then i would send a printed catalog out to all my potential customers,
made of that super-thin bible-paper, so that 1000 pages would be small
and people could sit on the toilet and order exotic office supplies
on their mobile phone.

So, as the amazon's heat up for the sector, the ones carrying big shop
space that ain't moving goods are the ones in the pinch, and IMO, hence
this news announcement.

[TheWatcher]

28. Haven't You Heard? The Dow Is At 11,000. Nothing To See Here.

Now go buy your Wal Mart Trinkets and Electronic Gadgets, Wave Your Flag, and Shut Up.

The Economy Is Roaring.

Deal With It.

:sarcasm:

[Neshanic]

29. Ain't seen nothing yet. More surprises to come.

Remember(not in the distant past),when there were three office machines to do three things? Now one does them all. If you go into one of those stores now, there less and less of what makes an office your parents would recognize.

Victims of their own success, the basics of an office are now going away, so paper, paper daytimers, and everything else is not needed.

Just the fact that gas went to historic highs, did wonders for Adobe stock.

The gas companies and Walmart/big box anything will be the end of our economy. Unless you work there, or are rich.