Romney’s Success Story?: Staples Is Closing Sixty Stores

By Justin Acuff  September 25, 2012       Original

Staples is closing fifteen stores in the U.S. and has plans to close forty-five stores and/or delivery businesses in Europe, reports Huffington Post. This is interesting because Romney has claimed Staples as a success and an example of his job-creating prowess.

Huffington Post:

Staples is trying to adapt to the evolving needs of its customers. Last month the company reported that its second-quarter net income fell as sales of computers, software, and basic office supplies softened. Computer sales have been pressured by the introduction to many offices of the computer tablet and other mobile devices. Traffic is also down at Staples’ stores and Europe continues to be a weak spot.

The chain expects the U.S. store closings will result in a charge of about $35 million in the fourth quarter. For fiscal 2012, it anticipates about 30 U.S. store closings. Staples also expects 30 stores will be scaled down and stores being relocated.

In Europe, the store closures are expected to occur before the end of fiscal 2012. The company has also tapped John Wilson to serve as president of Staples Europe. Wilson succeeds Rob Vale, who is retiring.

The retailer says its U.S. retail and online businesses will now be run by Demos Parneros. Joe Doody will continue to lead the North American contract and Quill.com businesses, and will assume leadership of supply chain and customer service operations in North America.

While the closing of the stores doesn’t necessarily bode poorly for the company itself, it does put those employees’ jobs in danger. Not only that, but its stock fell to a fifty-two week low in late August.

FreakOutNation reports:

Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney is having a dreadful week. Romney claims that his business experience would solve our countries employment issues — while giving a nod to cutting regulations. Staples, Romney’s success story, pays their employees at a minimal pay rate and now many of Staples’ workers will now be unemployed.

The Framingham, Mass., company anticipates annual savings of about $250 million by fiscal 2015′s end, so they’ll be faring well, however, touting the company as job creators is a distortion of facts. The facts are, that Staples pushed smaller businesses out, while bringing their large company in.When will politicians tout Mom and Pop stores, small local businesses and community, instead of privatization, enormous stores that go out of style leaving no means for the people left behind?

In other words, Mitt Romney’s businesses are failures. What would he do with the country?

Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney,Staples,Jobs,2012 Election,The Economy,Current Events

Lynard Skynyrd Upsets Some Fans

Gary Rossington, the only living survivor of the original band has distanced the group from the Confederate Flag calling it pretty much a symbol of racism as the KKK, the skinheads, and others have hijacked the flag for their racist views.

Raw Story

And in doing so, that last original member, guitarist Gary Rossington, has sparked a backlash among some of the band’s staunch supporters who see his move as an affront to everything the band once stood for.

In a CNN interview earlier this month, Rossington said that the flag had been hijacked by racists and, in the process, become detached from it’s original meaning as a symbol of rebelliousness and states’ rights. As a result, he said, he was concerned about the band being associated with the flag lest people get the wrong idea.

    This upset some fans prompting Rossington to issue a message on the groups website saying:

I wanted to clarify the discussion of the Confederate Flag in our recent CNN interview. Myself, the past members and the present members (that are from the South), are all extremely proud of our heritage and being from the South. We know what the Dixie flag represents and its heritage; the Civil War was fought over States rights.
We still utilize the Confederate (Rebel) flag on stage every night in our shows, we are and always will be a Southern American Rock band, first and foremost. We also utilize the state flag of Alabama and the American flag as well, ‘cause at the end of the day, we are all Americans. I only stated my opinion that the confederate flag, at times, was unfairly being used as a symbol by various hate groups, which is something that we don’t support the flag being used for. The Confederate flag means something more to us, Heritage not Hate…

  The Tea Party racist will ne up in arms over this, you can bet on it.

  Fans who commented in CNN’s comments section were a little bit vocal.

“ I guess this means they will be opening for the Dixie Chicks? “

“ This isn't the real Lynyrd Skynyrd anyway. They should have taken a name like "Obama's Politically Correct Sell Your Soul Make Believe Imposters" or something. They'll never be able to mimic the real Skynyrd's music and they certainly can't live up to their southern statesmanship. We hope you never come back to "Sweet Home Alabama" Cowards. “

Technorati Tags: Lynard Skynyrd,Confederate Flag,Racism,KKK,CNN,Current Events