Struggling Amazon rival has closed 100s of shops, extra closing in 2025

Whereas the web has solely captured about 16% of total retail gross sales, based on Census.gov knowledge, it has nonetheless modified how individuals store.

Customers not want to go to a retailer to buy. It signifies that when objects they plan to buy aren’t issues they should see in particular person, there is no motive to go to a retailer.

I used to go to Staples after I wanted to make a duplicate or fax one thing. These issues hardly ever come up and, once they do, the UPS retailer has extra comfort places and affords these companies.

The altering market harm some retailers greater than others. Workplace-supply chains have been hit actually arduous as a result of no one likes going to purchase printer paper or associated merchandise.

“Staples CEO Ron Sargent said that customers were using fewer office supplies and migrating to online shopping, reducing the ability to sell add-on items and making them more value-conscious. In response, Staples will close about 225 stores by 2015, with expectations to cut costs by $500 million as a result,” The Motley Idiot’s Dan Caplinger reported all the way in which again in 2014.

In newer years, the general {industry} has struggled.

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“The office supply store industry has faced choppy waters recently, battling shrinking profit and declining demand due to digitalization and intense competition. In 2025, the industry’s revenue will stand at $20.9 billion, reflecting a drop of 1.8% from the previous year. This decline aligns with the industry’s overall five-year CAGR of -4.0%,” IBISWorld reported.

Staples has steadily been closing shops, and extra have shuttered not too long ago.

Latest and upcoming staples closures (2024-2025)

• Norwalk, Connecticut (654 Important Ave.): This Staples location closed completely on August 8, 2025.
  Supply: CT Insider
• Howell, New Jersey: The Howell Staples closed on October 3, 2025.
  Supply: 92.7 WOBM
• Whitehall Sq., Pennsylvania: A Staples retailer there’s confirmed to shut on January 2, 2026, with clearance gross sales already underway.
  Supply: The Solar
• A number of shops nationwide: Based on a 2025 industry-wide evaluation, greater than 45-60 Staples shops are anticipated to shut this yr, affecting areas with declining foot site visitors or overlapping places.
  Sources: Yahoo Finance, Cash Occasions
• General U.S. retailer depend (as of October 2025): 929, indicating a shrinking footprint over time.
  Supply: ScrapeHero

Staples has been steadily closing shops.

Shutterstock

Staples is a part of a broader development

About 15,000 retail shops are anticipated to shut this yr, based on knowledge from retail evaluation agency Coresight Analysis.

If this estimate is correct, it will likely be considerably larger than final yr, as “store closures totaled 7,325 in 2024, the highest number of store closures seen since 2020 when Coresight Research tracked almost 10,000 closures,” the agency stated.

Closures “outpaced openings in 2024 with a net loss of 1,355 stores,” based on the info.

Workplace provides have additionally seen much less demand, and that market has been shared by Staples, direct rival Workplace Depot, and Amazon.

“Data from Euromonitor also shows a steep decline at office supply and stationery stores over the past five years, with the market contracting by 38% between 2016 and 2021,” RetailDive reported.

Circana: U.S. workplace provides {industry} (2025)

• Gross sales Income: Gross sales income throughout bodily and digital retail channels totaled $11.5 billion in 2024, representing a 5% decline in comparison with the earlier yr.
• Unit Demand: Complete unit demand fell by 2% in 2024.
• Outlook: The outlook for 2025 stays challenged however more and more steady, with a projected 2% decline and anticipated {industry} flattening by way of 2027.
  Supply: Circana

Staples’ fall has been lengthy

Staples has been a personal firm since 2017, however its fall from grace will be traced again to years earlier than that.

“Staples’ strategic position began to erode when it moved away from an EDLP (every day low prices) value strategy toward one reliant on widest range and convenient locations. New competitors, both digital (Amazon) and brick and mortar (Walmart), eventually were able to claim price leadership — which became critical in the recessionary economy,” EnvZone reported.

The corporate has not course corrected, and having already closed a whole bunch of shops (roughly 400 since its peak), the chain now finds itself preventing for its share of a shrinking {industry}.

“The office supply store industry has faced choppy waters recently, battling shrinking profit and declining demand due to digitalization and intense competition. In 2025, the industry’s revenue will stand at $20.9 billion, reflecting a drop of 1.8% from the previous year. This decline aligns with the industry’s overall five-year CAGR of -4.0%,” IBISWorld reported.

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