26 September 2012, Staples, considered an example of success for vulture capitalist Bain Capital (Mitt Romney sat on Staples’ board of directors for more than a decade), is in big trouble.
On 25 September, officials with Staples announced they will close down 75 stores worldwide (at least 30 in the United States with 15 of those being accelerated closings, 45 stores and delivery businesses in Europe). Staples will also downsize/relocate another 30 stores in the U.S.
Will the Pocatello, Idaho, Staples make the new closings hit list?
Common sense tells you that means more job losses, even though company officials are claiming that won’t happen.
Sales at Staples are crashing, especially for computers. Company officials say they are shifting to more internet based business.
For the quarter ended July 2012 Staples reported an overall 6% decrease in sales, compared to the same time in 2011: “Our second quarter results fell short of our expectations due to softer than expected sales trends in North America and ongoing weakness in Europe and Australia.”-Ron Sargent, CEO
In North America sales decreased 3%, but around the world Staples saw a 10% decrease!
Staples has also revised its future sales outlook downward, and is expecting hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars in costs just to close down all those stores!
Mitt Romney, and others with Bain Capital, once called Staples their prime example of success. Here’s just a sampling of other companies that Bain Capital is involved with: AMC Entertainment, Aspen Education Group, Brookstone, Burger King, Burlington Coat Factory, Clear Channel Communications, Domino’s Pizza, DoubleClick, Dunkin’ Donuts, D&M Holdings, Guitar Center, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Sealy, The Sports Authority, Toys “R” Us, Warner Music Group and The Weather Channel.
Once you start investigating all the companies that Bain Capital is involved with, or affiliated with, it becomes clear that it is unAmerican Corporate America’s vulture (venture) capitalist investment companies that are killing our economy.
And Mitt Romney says as President of the United States he’ll do for the country what he did for Corporate America!