CafeNeves

As we prepare for Black Friday and the holiday season, I thought I would update you on what’s been going on at Staples.

Danielle loves her Dunkin Donuts coffee

Jeff and Danielle cracking under the pressure

Okay, so Back To School was two months ago, but hey, I’ve been busy. And so was the store. It was crazy! We did almost double the business that they expected. It was so busy that some of us were starting to crack under the pressure, as you can see. Some of use became very close with our coffee, which some nights when you are cleaning up until 1am, is the only thing that keeps you going. The days leading up to Labor day week were hectic. We were stocking stuff left and right, working 2-3hrs after closing just to get the store ready, and cleaned up after the early birds who didn’t wait until the last possible minute to do their shopping.

Francessca trying to clean up the folder section

The Binder Wall after the first night of BTS

Then it was showtime, the Tuesday after Labor Day when several of the local school districts went back. It seems that the grade schools give out or post lists, but high schools don’t. I got to work at 4:30 and the line was to the back of the store and along the wall. And it stayed that way until 9:30. It was crazy! The good news is that the line moved. Several customers said that they only waited on line about 15-20 minutes tops. And while the store was extremely busy, it seems mostly organized. Most people were able to find what they were looking for and we had enough of most items. We ran out of some items quick, and the binder wall got decimated, but overall it was a good day. However, the store closed at 10 and we didn’t leave until 1:30am because we were cleaning up the mess.

The BInder Wall again... it was completely filled.

Yea, more binder wall

Yes, the binder wall was empty. By Wednsday night people were looking for binder, particularly the 1.5″ ones and going away unhappy. We probably could have sold another 200-300 of them it was had them. Oh, and in addition to that wall we had a full end-cap and about 4 other locations in the store with a dozen cases of binders on display. All gone.

We also sold out of the TI-84 calculators that they use in the high schools. They had to send someone to another store to pick up 4 cases (6 per case) on Thursday and those were gone by the weekend. It was quite impressive.

Overall we did about double what corporate expected on each of those days for back to school. It was crazy, but also kind of fun.