Staples says back-to-school promotions are on par with last year

Staples says back-to-school similar to last year

NEW YORK — Staples reported Tuesday that its fiscal second-quarter profit fell 39 percent, while sales at Staples stores open at least a year, a key industry metric known as same-store sales, fell 5 percent in the second quarter as average order size fell.

In a conference call, the company’s president of U.S. stores, Demos Parneros, compared this year’s back-to-school promotions with last year’s.

QUESTION: Are promotions more aggressive, in your opinion, for this back-to-school season compared to last year? And if not, do you expect they’ll get more aggressive as we move into September?

ANSWER: Back-to-school promotions have been fairly consistent with last year’s level of promotion. Everyone this time of year becomes a back-to-school retailer. There are probably 10 or 15 different places you can buy back-to-school product. We have been focused as we said earlier on the whole value messaging, and the “Staples equals savings” campaign has been great. …. We expect a similar level of promotions and competitiveness for the rest of the way.