Staples - Out of the home automation business

[Teken]

This was published last week for those interested: http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/staples-connect-discontinued/

 

As stated in previous threads the rolling 18 months would separate the serious from the also rans. For most of these companies like Staples, Home Depot (Wink) this is just a fad. The last 24 months has shown various companies and brands be shuttered whether it be Netgear Vue Zone to the clumsy product called Revolv.

 

History has shown clearly it doesn't matter how much money you have or what kind of market penetration.

 

This covers (A) Apples (Z) Z-Wave . . .

 

There is no guarantee your wares will be adopted by the masses - never mind companies like Google willing to stick it out or simply abandon it with out thought or consideration to the consumer / public. Lots of people have commented that this period has ushered in more adoption and wide spread hardware for HA.

 

This may be true to some extent but what is also true is there has never been a time where the consumer needs to be more aware and to conduct their due diligence and refrain from buying into the (controllers / HUB's) which are completely cloud hosted products - which almost 90% are based on.

 

The market is littered with dozens of cloud based hardware which are completely dependent upon the cloud to operate, view, connect, and manage.

 

Many of the people in the industry who have direct knowledge of the inner workings and road map for various companies tell me. The market will see many more products fail to companies pulling out of the HA industry as a whole.

 

This doesn't surprise me in the least because most of these companies have zero focus. Some of these companies make toasters, fridges, washers, dryers, to computers. One would think companies which have so much experience in product design and development would also have the focus and road map for a successful deployment.

 

Sadly, the only winners are the companies that sold you their crappy product and the consumer is left holding the virtual bag.

[Brian H]

I am not too surprised at the news.

I believe Staples is experiencing lower sales figures recently and maybe consolidating stores.

[larryllix]

Most of sales in this area is just plain "smoke and mirrors". You have to talk the BS to get a crowd and then you can say "We have a crowd".

 

Many of us have learned the hard way by the time we get old and crusty. The youngsters like to call us doubters and cynics, etc..

 

... but "Been there, done that", rules supreme on a limited budget.

 

 

 

:/crust

[Scottmichaelj]

I am not too surprised at the news.

I believe Staples is experiencing lower sales figures recently and maybe consolidating stores.

Without getting on a rant but your right. The government wouldn't let them merge with Office Depot

 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-judge-blocks-staples-office-depot-merger-1462920789

 

Now they will downsize and possibly go out of business, with people loosing their jobs when they may have been saved if they allowed the merger. Maybe they will have better luck overseas?

 

Kinda like how the union forced Hostess to close.

[Teken]

Without getting on a rant but your right. The government wouldn't let them merge with Office Depot

 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-judge-blocks-staples-office-depot-merger-1462920789

 

Now they will downsize and possibly go out of business, with people loosing their jobs when they may have been saved if they allowed the merger. Maybe they will have better luck overseas?

 

Kinda like how the union forced Hostess to close.

 

Unfortunately I don't hold the same view about the failed merger process. Every company should be able to hold their own in the market place.

 

Those that can't had a combination of failures whether it be idea, concept, implementation, over head, R&D, P&L, LPMH, theft, stock management, to poor leadership / governance. 

 

The critical is being able to adapt to the changing market trends, needs, and services / products offered.

 

as the linked article clearly stated the very fact Staples / Office Depot failed to even submit a formal counter reply to the suite clearly indicates they had no legs to stand on. The only reason you don't submit a counter is because there are no merits to the case.

 

I have yet to see one single large corporation ever give a rats aszz about the employee's when closure are imminent.

 

Staples / Office Depot are exactly like Sears, Kmart, etc.

 

These companies have failed to adapt to the ever growing on line presence of the likes of Amazon or any other cloud based outlet.

 

When a person walks into a place of business like Staples / Office Depot for a box of pens and they cost 5 - 45% (depending upon product & brand) more than what can be found on line which many offer free shipping.

 

How exactly do you suppose they are ever going to compete with that type of business model?

 

The market is driven by supply and demand and its clear the demand isn't in the two business's listed in this article.

 

Regardless, this article is a pale comparison of the epic failure of Target coming to Canada. To think this failure of a company is still in business is quite shocking.

 

One would have to ask themselves why would any company come into any market not just Canada and have empty shelves or products that costs 2-3 times more or could be found at Walmart, Dollar Store for less?!?!?

 

I say let them both die off and let some other company with a real business plan enter the market place.  

[Scottmichaelj]

Unfortunately I don't hold the same view about the failed merger process. Every company should be able to hold their own in the market place.

 

Those that can't had a combination of failures whether it be idea, concept, implementation, over head, R&D, P&L, LPMH, theft, stock management, to poor leadership / governance.

 

The critical is being able to adapt to the changing market trends, needs, and services / products offered.

 

as the linked article clearly stated the very fact Staples / Office Depot failed to even submit a formal counter reply to the suite clearly indicates they had no legs to stand on. The only reason you don't submit a counter is because there are no merits to the case.

 

I have yet to see one single large corporation ever give a rats aszz about the employee's when closure are imminent.

 

Staples / Office Depot are exactly like Sears, Kmart, etc.

 

These companies have failed to adapt to the ever growing on line presence of the likes of Amazon or any other cloud based outlet.

 

When a person walks into a place of business like Staples / Office Depot for a box of pens and they cost 5 - 45% (depending upon product & brand) more than what can be found on line which many offer free shipping.

 

How exactly do you suppose they are ever going to compete with that type of business model?

 

The market is driven by supply and demand and its clear the demand isn't in the two business's listed in this article.

 

Regardless, this article is a pale comparison of the epic failure of Target coming to Canada. To think this failure of a company is still in business is quite shocking.

 

One would have to ask themselves why would any company come into any market not just Canada and have empty shelves or products that costs 2-3 times more or could be found at Walmart, Dollar Store for less?!?!?

 

I say let them both die off and let some other company with a real business plan enter the market place.

While I do agree with the strongest should survive I do think its sad they were not allowed to merge for worries of a becoming a monopoly. Then this leads to a company failing and people loosing their jobs. I'm sure the shareholders are more important than the employees however the government is not helping then in turn it causes unemployment and becomes a burdon on the taxpayers paying their unemployment benefits/wages. Not sure how it works in Canada nor am I trying to imply your not knowledgeable how the US works but I rather try to help rather than have them fail. We have seen how the bell breakups have worked out etc. I don't have issues with the government putting regulations on a company but at least allow them to try and get out than fail all together. They did it for the banks why is other industries different? Oh wait, lets not get into that! Maybe they make exceptions for companies that employ"X" thousands of employees and make it that they can't raise prices more than the rate of inflation and/or not open new stores for a certain time period. At the end of the day IF one of them fail what would be the realistic chance anyone could come into the space now and overtake them? AFAIK since it was a Federal Judge who said No so even if they responded they would have to take it to the Supreme Court and the likelihood they would repeal or even hear it is slim.

 

That's all my point was. Hope your having a great weekend and enjoying your summer as we are coming close to the end.

[G W]

Don't forget how bad the American public got screwed due to the government bailout of the auto industry.

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

[Scottmichaelj]

Don't forget how bad the American public got screwed due to the government bailout of the auto industry.

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

Yup. I lean towards less government is better and I am not a fan of Walmart

[G W]

I like Costco

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

[Teken]

While I do agree with the strongest should survive I do think its sad they were not allowed to merge for worries of a becoming a monopoly. Then this leads to a company failing and people loosing their jobs. I'm sure the shareholders are more important than the employees however the government is not helping then in turn it causes unemployment and becomes a burdon on the taxpayers paying their unemployment benefits/wages. Not sure how it works in Canada nor am I trying to imply your not knowledgeable how the US works but I rather try to help rather than have them fail. We have seen how the bell breakups have worked out etc. I don't have issues with the government putting regulations on a company but at least allow them to try and get out than fail all together. They did it for the banks why is other industries different? Oh wait, lets not get into that! Maybe they make exceptions for companies that employ"X" thousands of employees and make it that they can't raise prices more than the rate of inflation and/or not open new stores for a certain time period. At the end of the day IF one of them fail what would be the realistic chance anyone could come into the space now and overtake them? AFAIK since it was a Federal Judge who said No so even if they responded they would have to take it to the Supreme Court and the likelihood they would repeal or even hear it is slim.

 

That's all my point was. Hope your having a great weekend and enjoying your summer as we are coming close to the end.

 

Ultimately, neither company filed their briefs to counter or provide the insight the courts were looking for. That is quite telling because we all know any lawyer worth their salt would have.

 

In this specific case neither legal counsel did . . .

 

As for the big banks fleecing America - each and every one of those crooks should have been shot in the forehead. To think billions of tax payer dollars were given to a greedy few who actually caused the crash / bubble. To add insult to injury those billions of dollars were supposed to be provided to the public.

 

But instead these lying, thieving, scum bags kept all the money and spent it on themselves?!?!

 

Watching tens of millions of hard working Americans lose their homes - not one single bank stepped in to help the people, none!

 

All I know is (IF) I was the Universal Galactic Omni Present judge of the multiverse. I would have zapped each one of these dirt bags from existence. When I watch TV shows or movies which are completely make belief - yet the story they tell mirror real life events or even worse life mimics fiction?!?!

 

I just have to shake my head and hold my hands over my face in disbelief . . . 

 

Back on topic: Staples like any other company will need to adapt and make the changes that really matter. The problem with all of these companies as of late is everyone is on the *Me too* train.

 

They figured it was a good idea to get into the HA market like Home Depot. This is why people should never buy anything from a company that has nothing to do with their core service(s). I don't know how many fools decided to purchase a Wink or the Staples Connect platform. But you have to be a complete imbecile to purchase home automation from a business that sells pens and chairs.

 

What does home automation have to do with selling building materials from HD?!?!

 

As I have stated hundreds of times in this forum and many others the very best thing that can every happen is this same kind of thing keeps happening. Let every Johnny come lately crash and burn and never come back.

 

The only thing these companies have done is made the HA world more confusing, disparate, and painful for the masses.

 

Then again I don't lose any sleep on the fools that bought into these silly cloud based HUB's which are left holding the empty bag either! 

 

Hope your week end and summer has rocked too!

[G W]

The biggest problem with Office Depot/Office Max and Staples is market over saturation. All three were within two miles of my house. Add to that two Super Walmarts and a Super Target and of course there will be a looser or two.

 

On the other hand the two Home Depot locations and Lowes location are doing great. Not to mention the Costco and Sam's which are seeing record sales in my area.

 

It's all supply chain. There is nothing the big office supply chains have that I can't get at a different store.

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

[Scottmichaelj]

The biggest problem with Office Depot/Office Max and Staples is market over saturation. All three were within two miles of my house. Add to that two Super Walmarts and a Super Target and of course there will be a looser or two.

 

On the other hand the two Home Depot locations and Lowes location are doing great. Not to mention the Costco and Sam's which are seeing record sales in my area.

 

It's all supply chain. There is nothing the big office supply chains have that I can't get at a different store.

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

I think you hit the mark, over saturated and other stores sell the same supplies. The reason I think they stay in business is the fact they have contracts with many large companies who "over spend" and don't price shop because its "not their money". Small businesses on the other hand will go to other stores to save.

 

Its a shame for the employees. Not sure about the legal stuff and I'm not a lawyer. I do recall there being a large payout if the merger didn't happen so it maybe was a calculated gamble.

[larryllix]

They will just close their doors, hire everybody back without their Union, or benefits, and change the store name to Staples anyway, closing stores that were too close together.

 

Better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.

 

Business Depot was already assimilated and Staples in Canada finally stopped using their name to smooth over the image.

[G W]

Unions get no sympathy from me.

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

[giesen]

They will just close their doors, hire everybody back without their Union, or benefits, and change the store name to Staples anyway, closing stores that were too close together.

 

Better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.

 

Business Depot was already assimilated and Staples in Canada finally stopped using their name to smooth over the image.

Staples was not unionized (not in Canada at least; and I would be very surprised if they were in the US)

 

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

[Teken]

My take is over all unions have a place in the market but temper that with the fact most of them are self serving. Most unions I've had dealings with are focused mainly on keeping the status quo.

 

The end result is inflated costs, long lead times, to restricted resources.

 

Unions in Canada are very similar to America where the bulk of them just fleece the employee's with make belief dues which doesn't offer anything - besides a lighter cheque.

 

Presently in Canada the national postal service (Canada Post) is at the table with the Government about keeping the status quo.

 

Why?!?!

 

To ensure big phat salaries are continued to be paid out to senior employee's while at the same time paying the *contractor* employee's next to nothing! So its OK to pay a fair wage, offer great benefits, and various other job related perks.

 

But the guy who is a contractor wearing, doing, and representing Canada Post, isn't?!?!?

 

Unions had a place back in the day and in some instances still do. But over all they are a legacy business model that hurt more in business than it helps. If that wasn't the case every business in the free world would be unionized and that you can take to the bank!

 

Back on topic: With respect to Staples in Canada most of them are separated far enough from one another it doesn't impact sales. Now, if you said compare that to a gas station, coffee shop, restaurant in my neck of the woods. Your head would spin off your shoulders in wondering why on Gods green Earth are there so many of the above?

 

Not just lots of them - but duplicate, triplicates of the above in short distances of one another!

[rafarataneneces]

This was published last week for those interested: http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/staples-connect-discontinued/

 

As stated in previous threads the rolling 18 months would separate the serious from the also rans. For most of these companies like Staples, Home Depot (Wink) this is just a fad. The last 24 months has shown various companies and brands be shuttered whether it be Netgear Vue Zone to the clumsy product called Revolv.

 

History has shown clearly it doesn't matter how much money you have or what kind of market penetration.

 

This covers (A) Apples (Z) Z-Wave . . .

 

There is no guarantee your wares will be adopted by the masses - never mind companies like Google willing to stick it out or simply abandon it with out thought or consideration to the consumer / public. Lots of people have commented that this period has ushered in more adoption and wide spread hardware for HA.

 

This may be true to some extent but what is also true is there has never been a time where the consumer needs to be more aware and to conduct their due diligence and refrain from buying into the (controllers / HUB's) which are completely cloud hosted products - which almost 90% are based on.

 

The market is littered with dozens of cloud based hardware which are completely dependent upon the cloud to operate, view, connect, and manage.

 

Many of the people in the industry who have direct knowledge of the inner workings and road map for various companies tell me. The market will see many more products fail to companies pulling out of the HA industry as a whole.

 

This doesn't surprise me in the least because most of these companies have zero focus. Some of these companies make toasters, fridges, washers, dryers, to computers. One would think companies which have so much experience in product design and development would also have the focus and road map for a successful deployment.

 

Sadly, the only winners are the companies that sold you their crappy product and the consumer is left holding the virtual bag.

stop bitching and complaining.

 

If you don't like their products don't buy them.

[G W]

stop bitching and complaining.

 

If you don't like their products don't buy them.

Wow! This entire debate went right over your head. You missed the point in its entirety.

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

[ISYhbsh01]

Read the forum now by timeline. Something happened to someone I am afraid.

[larryllix]

I was told years ago and I now believe in it wholeheartedly. 

 

Never trust big business, big unions, big religion, or big government politics.

 

They all had good intentions, but none have a heart, or a conscience anymore.

[mwester]

They never had a heart to begin with.  Ever.

 

Big government, big business - there's no difference when you get down to the basic motivations.  Oh, the individual people may have different motivations -- I often find that employees differ with the official line, be it government employees or other.  But in the end, government like businesses seek to sustain and profit themselves.  That's their only goal in the end, and those who keep that in mind will find things to be generally predictable.  Not necessarily nice, but at least predictable.

 

So as it relates to Staples -- they got a lot of their business eaten by online ordering from places like Amazon.  Let's face it - well run businesses don't usually do a lot of last-second sort of office-supply shopping, so they're more than willing to wait a few days for shipping a box-load of stuff.  And as poorly as the legal documents may have been done, I find it somewhat sad that our antiquated government found it appropriate to deny the merger.  Apparently having them merge would be a "bad thing" for the consumer - it's better to let Amazon end up with a near-monopoly.  Ah well, they'll stumble as well, and we'll see what happens.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello rafarataneneces, I am kindly asking you to stop ad hominem attacks. This is a very moderate and polite forum and we would love to keep it that way. Thank you for your consideration.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Teken]

stop bitching and complaining.

 

If you don't like their products don't buy them.

 

 

Wow! This entire debate went right over your head. You missed the point in its entirety.

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

 

 

Read the forum now by timeline. Something happened to someone I am afraid.

 

Yes, unfortunately I awoke to a series of random, incoherent, off topic replies which is the direct result of this thread:  http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/19542-why-my-isy-portal-disables-mobilinc/page-2

 

I am at a complete loss how anyone can reply and quote a person and leave remarks which doesn't in any material way address the written content?!?!

 

Reading just a few of the threads created by this member is like watching a slow motion train wreck. Its funny and scary all at the same time - Sadly, its the norm when people don't take the time to read the content and simply reply.

 

Its like a braille driver - drives by feel, you simply won't get very far . . .

[rafarataneneces]

Wow! This entire debate went right over your head. You missed the point in its entirety.

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

 

Gary, Teken is the one that started insulting me.

[rafarataneneces]

stop the bitching and moaning and carry on already.

 

This endless circle talk isn't going to resolve itself until you accept the fact you didn't ask enough questions along with educating yourself about platforms in use.

 

You make it sound like someone stole your ball and won't give it back?!?!

Teken started