Iconic national office retailer closing stores, no bankruptcy

Amazon’s skyrocketing occurrence had a disruptive effect connected accepted income successful the planetary retail industry.

The e-commerce elephantine removed the request for carnal presence. Pair that with a harsh economical clime — and for the knockout, the Covid lockdowns — to get a realistic representation of brick-and-mortar retail's struggles.

The accepted retail office-supply marketplace is simply a bully example. Industry information uncover U.S. bureau supplies income gross crossed carnal and integer retail channels totaled $11.5 cardinal successful 2024, suggesting a 5% year-over-year decline, arsenic full portion request dropped 2%, according to Circana.

Two ample forces stay successful the office-supply industry, adjacent though Amazon’s backstage label, Amazon Basics, captures 12% of online bureau proviso sales, according to information from WifiTalents.

One of them, Office Depot, saw ownership changes successful 2025, and the other, Staples, is besides making drastic operational moves.

While the accepted retail office-supply marketplace is struggling, the aboriginal of the wide manufacture doesn't look bleak. Staples and Office Depot combined inactive relationship for 33% of the U.S. market.

• Market growth: It's valued astatine $183.07 billion (2025) and projected to deed $186.71 billion (2026) with a 1.01% CAGR.

• E-commerce: Online income present thrust 28% of full manufacture revenue.

• Paper products: These supplies support a ascendant 35% stock of planetary revenue.

• Desk supplies: Items specified arsenic staples and clips seizure 12% of the planetary market.

• Logistics: Global shipping and proviso concatenation costs surged 15% successful 2022.

• Retail leader:Walmart remains the apical U.S. brick-and-mortar root for low-cost stationery.

• Strategy changes: Office Depot has closed 200 stores since 2020 to prioritize B2B distribution.
  Sources: Fortune Business Insights, WifiTalents

Industry information marque it wide that the marketplace for bureau supplies isn’t going anywhere. In fact, WifiTalents information besides uncover that 40% of bureau workers inactive similar handwritten notes, contempt utilizing integer tablets.

While the aboriginal of the manufacture is stable, the mode these retailers run is changing significantly. A cardinal illustration is Office Depot, which was sold to Atlas Holdings for astir $1 billion, oregon astir the aforesaid magnitude the bureau concatenation paid to get rival OfficeMax much than a decennary ago.

“This transaction, afloat supported by our Board, provides a important premium for The ODP Corporation’s shareholders and volition amended the company’s presumption for the adjacent signifier of growth," ODP Corporation CEO Gerry P. Smith said astatine the time.