Four years later, Office Depot closing Downtown store (Pittsburgh, Bethel Park: fit in, sales)

[Evergrey]

Over 30,000,000 sq. ft. of office space in 0.68 sq miles and Office Depot can't survive?

Four years later, Office Depot closing Downtown store - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Four years later, Office Depot closing Downtown store

May 8, 2012 4:20 pm

...

A sign posted outside Office Depot's Smithfield Street location announces that the store will close May 26. Employees in the store referred comment to a spokeswoman for the company, who said in an email that the Downtown store, with nearly 19,000 square feet, does not fit into the company's plan to remodel its stores into a smaller format, ranging in size from 5,000 to 15,000 feet.

"While we hope to be back with a smaller format store in the future, we will continue to serve our Pittsburgh area customers through our website at OfficeDepot.com and through other stores we have in the area in Munhall, West Mifflin, Bethel Park, and Monroeville," wrote Mindy Kramer, senior director of communications.

Signs at the Office Depot today advertised going-out-of-business sales while signs at Weldin's advertised Mother's Day specials.

...

[PreservationPioneer]

Okay, Sak's left. Office Depot is leaving. Who wants to predict when Macy's and Burlington will check out?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

Okay, Sak's left. Office Depot is leaving. Who wants to predict when Macy's and Burlington will check out?

Downtown isn't going to be attractive as a living option without much in the way of a retail presence.

[BrianTH]

I bought a highlighter there, not much more than a year ago. You're telling me that isn't enough to sustain their business model?

Edit:

Yikes:

http://retailsails.com/monthly-sales-summary/odp/quarterly/ (broken link)

http://retailsails.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/odp_quarterly_sales.png?w=500 (broken link)

http://retailsails.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/odp_quarterly_salesbysegment.png?w=500 (broken link)

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Over 30,000,000 sq. ft. of office space in 0.68 sq miles and Office Depot can't survive?

Staples has Office Depot and the other competitors over the barrel as far as sales over the internet.

And that's the way most businesses order paper and supplies nowadays, they don't send a secretary or gofer out to the store.

Since downtown doesn't have many retail shoppers nowadays, they really couldn't survive.

[PreservationPioneer]

If this trend keeps up, maybe downtown will someday become affordable.

[BrianTH]

Yeah, I can't count the number of times someone has come here asking about neighborhoods, and listing proximity to an Office Depot as their top priority.

[Hopes]

I'm not surprised. Most downtown businesses prefer to have their office supplies delivered.

Plus, locally owned office supply companies have better prices and personalized customer service via career account reps.

[greg42]

I wonder how much of this is just Office Depot. They also closed their store on McKnight Road, so it's not just downtown.

In our little office we usually order stuff, we don't need much, don't need it often. Although there are not a lot of retail stores for office supplies anymore, there are a lot more competitors in delivering such supplies to businesses. Apparently there just isn't enough demand for emergency supplies at a store downtown.

[Caladium]

But what about Dunder Mifflin?