First off let me say that just moments ago, I received an email saying that the local Staples store where I was once employed is currently looking for a couple of new full time sales associates.  Apparently the company either fired a couple of full timers or got a new boost from their sales results for last quarter.

 

However, I really doubt that latter idea happened.

 

In fact, realistically things continue to go downhill for the company.  For the 7th straight quarter, sales have continued to drop.  It seems that competition from the big boy box stores have taken their toll on them along with the online companies they have to compete against.

 

While the company gained over the estimates, the bar has been lowered significantly every quarter.  Overall, the company gained about 9% in its stock today after the report, closing a few cents short of $14.

 

However, while the picture seems rosy, the company is still planning on closing at least 220 stores by year’s end, if not a few more.  It is that last part that should be disturbing to people as that “few more” is an unknown number.  Does this mean 5, 10, 25, 50 or more to close?  I guess we will have to wait to the end of the 4th quarter to find out.

 

Most disturbing of the quarterly report transcript is that absolutely no mention was given to the possible data breach that was reported nearly a month ago.  I believe that they have had more than enough time to figure if they had a data breach or not.  It seems to me that they fear the fallout rather than the actual occurrence of the breach.  The time has come for the company to finally take its medicine and let the public in on the truth.

 

Of course, as I mentioned a long time ago, Staples is rather secretive on the gathering of credit card information and how they keep that information.  For those of you who remember then, I reported the company’s actions to the Better Business Bureau and they were in denial.  If you are interested in reading those posts just search “BBB” on this site.

 

Overall, Staples is falling apart as its seams despite people who own the stock who think otherwise.  Let me say that stockholders usually are NOT those who regularly shop at the company nor do they really care about what the company really does or its real performance.  Most stockholders are just in for a short time for a quick buck.  Therefore I expect that this stock will tumble in the coming days and weeks.

 

I also believe that the stock went up so much today was that it was riding on the coattails of both Lowe’s and Target, which also beat earnings for the 3rd quarter as well.  I am not surprised with Target as it was in competition with Staples during the critical back-to-school season last quarter.  Apparently both companies had lowered their bars as Target is still trying to recover from their data breach of last year.

 

In the end, I expect to see Staples sales to continue to falter and decline.  However, it would be nice if Staples actually admit the truth about the data breach.  But then again, when has Staples told the truth?  Readers of this blog already know the answer to that.