Staples had it half right-BF review

[levitt]

I think that if you had a poll of the entire board, the Staples BF Sale would have been voted either #2 or #3 most anticipated. It appeared that Staples wanted to be taken alot more seriously for today and future Black Fridays.

They had alot of great door busters. 2 excellent GPS units, a very good laptop deal, a couple of cameras, etc.

Now I am only a sample of one customer's experience at one store, so it is not clear if our scene was repeated around the country, but Staples has alot to learn about how to run a Black Friday sale.

We joined the N. Miami Beach line after 3:30AM. We were roughly 25th on line, although due to friends and family of the other 24, we likely ended up around 40-45.

The store lighhts came on around 5AM, and you could see workers making preperations. The store was due to open at 6AM, but no one came out to explain their procedures till 5:55. They did eventually give out tickets for 4 items, the laptop, the Tom Tom, the Navigon, and the Bluetooth headset. We missed out on a laptop by at least 15 people, but were able to get a GPS and the Bluetooth. They just handed out the tickets but did not say where to go or what to do. They then did not actually open till 6:08.

Once inside, they made an announcement that the ticket items could only be purchased at the copy center where they had two registers. However, there were also additional items that you could only get at the copy center, such as the HP camera. Since it was my wife and I, we were able to split up, me on the copy center line, she getting the rest of our purchases.

She also wanted the Sony camera as well as an MP3 player. She was told by an employee that they were both at the copy center.

The copy center registers were averaging 5 minutes per customer. Once you actually got rung up, people were asking for other products and a manager was hustling around the store to get those items. When I asked if I could get my two items and pay for them at the main registers I was told that was impossible.

After about an hour, it was finally my turn. It turned out that they never had any Sony cameras in stock, and the MP3 players had been in another part of the store and were now sold out. When I finally paid, I turned around and saw at least 60 people on line for one of the two copy center registers.

Well Saples, you are now a BF player. You did an excellent job presenting a diversified inventory for very good to excellent prices. Now you need to work on your customer service and organization skills. If you can put together both an excellent ad while also getting people in and out in a decent manner, you may have lines as long as Best Buy by BF 09.

[biomajor]

Our Staples is awesome--they had tickets for every item that was a doorbuster and once you had a ticket, you had till 10 to come back and redeem it and pay for it. I got my tickets, and went next door to Target and came back after Target and breakfast and my stuff was still there and they only had about 4 people in each of the lines.

[Scruzin]

Staples here gets a BIG FAT 0. They never told anyone about the tickets, they gave tickets here for every item on the front and back of the ad and then you had until 10 am to use your ticket.

[len_mullen]

I shopped Staples first this year. I was amazed at how well they handled BF. I arrived at the store at 4:30 expecting to sit in my car for an hour. There were already 30 people in line, so I joined them. At 5:00 the employees arrived. A manager came out and thanked us for our patience and promised to be out shortly with the tickets. She came back out about 5:30. Thanked us again for our patience and distributed the tickets. Shortly before 6:00 she came out again, thanked us for our patience, and explained that people with tickets for TVs should use the two leftmost registers, people with tickets for GPS devices should use the two rightmost registers, and that everyone else should use the middle registers. As we entered the store, she thanked each of us. I grabbed a few items and headed to the rightmost registers. I was in my car by 6:30. The experience was pleasant and very well organized.

[luckyscaper]

Things went well at our Staples too. I was worried a little at 5:52 or so until the girl with the tickets came out. She had only reached the 6th person by the time the store opened! We were at the front of the line and three of us got laptops and GPS units which were both stored off the sales floor and retrieved by a runner as the sales were wrung up. They had plenty of the smaller door busters and checkout was pretty efficient. Their rebates should be very easy to process and don't require photocopies, mailing, or upc codes. (They just print it out and you can fulfill online.) I was really pleased with how things went and won't hesitate to count on them again. I'm usually at Best Buy or Circuit City and really enjoyed the quiet relaxed atmosphere at Staples. Many thanks to Brad and company!!!

[aj4545]

The Staples I went to sucked! Every ticketed item had to be paid for at customer service. CS only had ONE register!!!! It took 2 hours to check out. It was RIDICULOUS!

[skytrain]

We were first in line and got 3 laptops and 3 tom toms plus the many nonticket items. Our staples were great. :) The manager came in around 5 said she would be passing out tickets at 5:30. She explained how things would be done. At ours you also had to be wrung up at the copy center but it went fast and they made sure they had the other items that you would possibly buy with the laptop near the copy center line. One thing I loved that the manager did is they let as many people that they could fit in the area between the outside door and inside door to the store wait in there. Which was about 25-30 of us. She let us do that as soon as she came in around 5 so that was nice that we got stay warm for that hour before we could go in the store. She aslo thanked each one of us when we were walking in and when she was handing out the tickets.

[headlinenews]

The staples we went sucks!

 

First they do have tickets, but they don't give the tickets before the store opens. Instead, they give everyone a map of the store (which shows the ticket counters in the store and what item tickets are available at each counter).

 

And then...

 

The store opens, everyone went to the ticket counters of their choice. Instead of first come, first serve, the staff basically made people beg for tickets -- They chose who gets the tickets. For example, they have 9 tickets of notebooks but only 1 of the first 9 persons in line got the ticket.

[hangtime_360]

I went to staples this year and picked up their samsung color laser printer for 99.99, a leather managers office chair for 49.99 (sitting in it), and a navigon 2100 w/ 3.5 in. screen for 99.99, good deals to say the least. The only thing I didn't like was the way they did the tickets. Its awesome that they allow until 10am for redemption of the tickets that were handed out, but I waited for an hour and a half to get the chair because they said the tickets were given out and it wasn't 10am yet, but it was a pretty hot item and the other 6 that they had were picked up all in about 2 seconds. In the end I asked where their display unit was and when I found it the ticket was sitting on it. I thought it was rediculous since I told the manager that the person either got the ticket and just left for good or decided that they didn't want it and threw the ticket away. I think that if they are going to be sticklers about holding off for redemptions then they need to have a person that is setup near the door to get back tickets that people decide they don't want to use, would have saved me almost 3 hours (the line took 2 hours after I had the item)

[hangtime_360]

The staples we went sucks!

 

The store opens, everyone went to the ticket counters of their choice. Instead of first come, first serve, the staff basically made people beg for tickets -- They chose who gets the tickets. For example, they have 9 tickets of notebooks but only 1 of the first 9 persons in line got the ticket.

You need to write a letter to corporate about that with a list of the managers name and the store location.

[love2cul8r]

The Van Nuys Staples store we went to did an AMAZING job as well!

 

The manager was super nice and at 5am made an announcement to everyone in line about how things were going to work when the store opens. He then came around to everyone passing out the vouchers for each individual's requested items, and also specified where items were located in the store for those items that did not need vouchers. Other employees passed out donuts!! TWICE!

 

Every 15 minutes, the manager checked thru the line to see if there were additional questions or voucher requests. He was patient, kind, and very helpful. At 6am, we were let into the store in groups of 10 every 5 minutes. There was plenty of staff inside to assist everyone and the shopping experience was very pleasant!!! I got everything I needed in a timely and respectable fashion.

[Tivo_Al]

My Staples was great. They had the tickets color coded, red, green and gold. At the store entrance there were color arrows on the floor leading to the three distribution areas. The store manager came out about 5:15 and explained the procedure and the tickets were handed out at 5:30. I needed one item in the red secion and one in the green. Also, the manager announced that they had 1 17" widescreen laptop computer to the first person who wanted it. I was third in line and got the laptop, and was in and out in less than 15 minutes.

 

Way to go Staples!

[krstee]

My Staples is a smaller store, and we didn't have the 42" tv at our location, so I was not about to wait in a line for the smaller items I really wanted. I headed to WM first (they are in the same shopping plaza).

 

At 5:59, I got out of WM, and headed over to Staples - the line of people (prolly 40 people by that time) already had gone in by the time I made it to the store. A few people were scurrying out (prolly headed out to other stores) as I walked in. The lines were HUGE and I had no idea where the few items I wanted (portable hard drive, 4gb flash drive, MP3 players) were, so just asked someone who worked there and they were pleasant enough and pointed me in the right direction. I got to the middle of the store and there was a long table set up with all the door busters, and there were still a few great buys to be had. I got mostly everything I wanted, but when I went to look for MP3 players, I got a little confused. I thought the Omintech MP3 players (advertised on back page) would have been put somewhere with the other deals - but no, they were still hanging on their original shelf tags. I finally found them, and all they had left were 2 (1GB) players so I scooped them up. I didn't have a cart, so I headed to the cart area with my stuff. Just as I got my cart, I must have gotten too close to the door sensor alarm, and I set of one of the alarms on the MP3 players. EVERYONE in line looked at me - and I blurted out "I am not leaving, I am just trying to get a cart." Being 9 months pregnant, I figured nobody would give me a hard time about it... most people just kinda giggled.

 

I made it into line and got to talking with a guy ahead of me. We ended up trading a 4 gb flash drive (I couldn't find them) for one of my MP3 players. All in all, it was a good experience and the people were relatively organized. I didn't go for a TV or other item, so I wouldn't know how they handled it.

 

 

One last thing. At 3:45 am, before I headed out, I was able to order a lot of Staples DB on line - and I got free shipping. :yup: I only went to the store to get another portable hard drive and MP3 player (well, and the 4gb flash drive) b/c I wasn't able to get a second order in before leaving for WM.....

 

I think Staples gets my favorite BF store award this year....

[BlackFridayFan]

Obviously, it depends on your particular store/manager-if they were organized and put in the preparation time, then you had a great experience. If not, it could have been chaos-for me, in Massapequa, NY, it was chaos because, although the managers arrived early, most of the employees did not, and of those that did, most seemed to not do much except sit around. They gave out tickets for the TV's, but for nothing else. What went wrong:

 

1)NO LINE SECURITY-several people tried to bum rush the doors, several arguments/near fights broke out

2)Anyone who wanted a GPS had to get it at the ONE register that was open in the Copy Center-line there was huge, and backed up, even as I headed out, having luckily been #5 in line.

3)If you wanted a GPS and anything else, unless you had someone with you, you had to wait for the GPS, pay for it, then scurry about, hopefully having the other items left.

4)Most sale/doorbuster items were not easy to find-they were either scattered about or at the regular checkout registers.

I agree with the OP-if Staples wants to be a player on BF, EVERY STORE SHOULD BE ORGANIZED, AND PREPARE. I hope corporate is listening. I intend to send this to them.

[femalesliealot]

My Staples did great! My wife and I went at midnight and there were only two people in line so we lined up with them. By 2 am there were at least 25 people in line. At 3 am the first two employees arrived, 4 am the manager and a few more employees arrived. 5 am there were about 60 people in line and the rest of the employees arrived. 5:30 am they handed out tickets and explained where to go and to pick up the ticketed items by 8 am. I couldn't have been happier when they came outside to hand out tickets because it was 33 degrees and my feet were getting numb.

 

My only complaint was with their free printer deal with the purchase of any computer. The manager said they were sent 30 computers but only 12 printers. It would have been nice if everyone who bought a computer could have gotten a free printer.

[batojefe]

Staples in Chester, NJ was great. We got everything that we wanted except for the laptop, but it was well worth the trip. I think we ended up buying 5 tomtoms because everyone wanted a GPS for Christmas this year, and you couldn't beat the price. Staples has trumped Best Buy for me because I can show up at 6 and be 15th in line, not 1500th in line like Best Buy. Two thumbs up!

[oxinthebox]

Man what a night. got to my local Staples at 430am and was 8th in line. had a good time talking to folks, i was there for the tom tom and the navigon. only one guy in front of me was there for the gps's so i was good or so i thought. mananger came out around 5 and said they would be passing out tickets to the popular items starting around 530, well that did not pan out as the only tickets they gave out was for the tv's, moniters and tom tom.

 

so i was fine for the tom tom but since they did not give out tickets for the laptop it was nuts when they opened the door, nobody knew where to go or what to do. me and the other "gps" guy walked in as the 7th and 8th person asked the asst manager where the navigons were and he said to follow him as they were in the stock room, cool we thought as there was a mad rush for the laptops. well 5/10 mins go by and we never saw the asst manager so we saw the store manager and asked him and he said we had to get in a check out line bc they were up front. oh buy the way that is where the 10 laptops were. so needless to say each line was about 15 people deep at this point. so we get in line and make our way up to the cashier and my "gps" friend gets the last one. not to happy i get my tom tom that i had the ticket for and asked for the manager. another asst manager come and i tell him the story and he said "sorry not much i can do" he did offer me 20% off any remaining gps's but that was about it. so he says he will find the store manager for me. store manager comes up hands me a $20 store credit and so i tell him my story and then he goes and looks to see if he can find one anywhere...nothing except the display model. so he takes it down for me!

 

go to the cashier to pay and was able to use the $20 store credit that he gave as well as the $20 gift card from the tom tom, so i got the navigon for$65 after tax!! so alls well that ends well, i guess. oh and since it was a display and he was not paying attention he also put the wall charger in the box as well. now i just have to make sure the free traffic goes through as there was no card in the box. but the manager said if i had any problems to come back and he would fix it. sorry for the long post, just wanted to share.

 

**update**

well the free traffic card was nowhere to be found so I went back today and after about 15 mins the manager came back and said he had nothing to give me for it, but was able to find one at another store that will be shipped to him 1st of the week. so i will have a "new one" in a few days!!

[Indy2424]

Staples in Chester, NJ was great. We got everything that we wanted except for the laptop, but it was well worth the trip. I think we ended up buying 5 tomtoms because everyone wanted a GPS for Christmas this year, and you couldn't beat the price. Staples has trumped Best Buy for me because I can show up at 6 and be 15th in line, not 1500th in line like Best Buy. Two thumbs up!

lol but with everyone liking staples so much next year it may not be as easy lol

[nirvana4all]

Our staples was great EXCEPT: No maps, did not tell anyone that the navigons (which they did not give out tickets for) were first come first serve at the customer service desk (located right by the entrance and check-out area. So as soon as someone about #25 in line found out, no one else could get in, and no one esle from further up in the line could get back to the service desk. Me (#8 in line) had to settle for the TomTom.

[cinnamon16201]

I have gone to two different Staples the last two years. The first one was semi organized and had people actually come out before the doors opened and gave out tickets. They would go down the line and ask what you wanted and gave you those tickets. Then we filed in past tables that had the other items and you could pick those up as you went past. You checked out at the regular registers and they had all of them up and running.

 

The second one was organized until you got to the door. They had 2 people sitting at a table handing out the tickets (get off your duffs, people!!) and it was a massive crowd around the table. Then when I got through I checked my tickets and they had given me the wrong ones! So I had to go back to exchange them, which had me encounter nasty looks from the people getting theirs as though I had cut in line! Also checked out at the regular registers with all of them running.

 

This year, there wasn't too much that I wanted there, so I checked right after 6am and ended up getting everything I needed online. My daughter, however, also put in an order online and it said everything was in stock, but her confirmation never came through. She contacted them and they said their server was busy, but they were sure it had gone through. Unfortunately later that evening she got a call from someone telling her that the GPS was out of stock (it took the computer 14 hours to figure this out????) and because of that she couldn't use the discount card she had either. She took the RAM anyway, but was annoyed that they wouldn't accept the card because it was their fault that the computer didn't have the right info. Plus had she known upfront earlier that it was out she could have gotten one when we went to Best Buy later that morning.

[batojefe]

lol but with everyone liking staples so much next year it may not be as easy lol

This is very true, because last year, there was one person in line. Next year, it might not be so easy!

[billcsho]

The line at my Staples is longer than last year. I arrived at 5:30am and was #35 which is not bad at all. They were late and slow in handing out tickets that they only covered the first 30 people before they have the door opened. After those got tickets went in, the line was stopped at the front door to obtain tickets. By the time I finish shopping, there was still a line waiting outside. I did not buy much in store this year as I was disappointed by the higher prices than other location for identical items. Interestingly, I went online after I got home an hour later, there were still some early bird sale items available such as the external hard drives. Even better, I can get them at the lower price as in other locations and use my $10 coupon received by e-mail a week ago.

[Guest ZeroGravity107]

Staples in North Kingstown RI was a mess. Thank god I had gotten a ticket (thank you to the guy in front of me) or else I would have been there forever. They had plenty of GPS's but the people who got tickets got to cut the LONG line.

[biggunslent]

I'm still amazed at how well of a job the staples in Novi, MI did. This year we got there at 3:15am, were 5th and 6th in line. At 5am, employees came out, handed out printed ads for anyone who needed one. At this time they also announced how much of each front page product they had in the store and how tickets would go. They had tickets for EVERY item on the front and back pages. Getting the tickets was a breeze, too. They opened the doors at 6am, you pointed out each ticketed item on the ad that you wanted, and they gave you a ticket for it. The tickets were color coded according to where you needed to pick the item up at in the store. They had about 2-3 people working at each of the pick up locations for the ticketed items, and all the checkout lines (5 of them) were open.

 

What made it even better was at 5:30 they handed out bottled waters and cookies to the first people in line until they ran out. This is my 2nd year going to this staples and last year it was just as good, I'll most likely be there next year too (depending on what the sales are like)....