Staples, Inc. NASDAQ: SPLS is the world's largest office supply retail store chains, with over 1,600 stores worldwide, including stores in the United States, Belgium, Canada (as Staples Business Depot or Bureau en Gros in Quebec), France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The company's first store was opened in Brighton, Massachusetts in 1986. The company is headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts. It also does business via the Internet, through its Web site.

The L in the logo is a stylized staple.

Staples Advertising

Throughout most of the company's history, Staples employed, in its American commercials and advertising promotions, the slogan "Yeah, we've got that.", signifying their wide selection of products. This slogan was retired in 2003, to be replaced with "That was easy." Expanding on that theme, 2005 ads featured a large red push button marked "easy". Plastic replicas of the "Easy Button" were distributed at Staples stores. In the UK, Staples uses the slogan "You want it. We've got it."'

The Easy Button is currently being manufactured as an attempt to profit from the popularity it has incited by television advertising. It was programmed to repeat the company slogan, "That Was Easy". These easy buttons were shipped to stores in the fall of 2005. All proceeds from the easy buttons will benefit the national Boys and Girls clubs of the United States.

The Staples Snowbot was an advertising character that appeared in the United States, in television and print advertising during the 2000 and 2001 Christmas seasons.

The Snowbot was a robot shaped like a snowman who refuses to let go of the inkjet printer he has fallen in love with. After the printer is wrestled from his grasp, the robot utters a monotone "Weeping. Weeping." He is consoled by a Staples employee who offers him a surge protector or a computer mouse (depending on the ad) instead.

The robot's "Weeping. Weeping." catchphrase briefly became a popular meme on the internet, and the ad itself was parodied in an American 2002 Christmas ad for Dell Computers, in which a robot hassles a shopper (including striking him with a candy cane) when he attempts to purchase a PC at an unnamed office supplies retailer.

Staples goal is to open at least 100 new stores in the United States yearly. This should put Staples in areas of the country that are currently dominated by competition.

Business Ventures

In March 2005, Staples, Inc., Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., and Giant Food LLC announced a joint collaboration in which all Stop & Shop Supermarkets and Giant Food stores throughout the Northeast will have a Staples branded store-within-store section that will sell traditional school and home office products in addition to copy and photo paper, ink cartridges, and technology products. The Staples store-within-store section was set to debut in July 2005.

In 1996, Staples Inc. proposed to merge with its rival Office Depot. Although both companies were ready for the merger, the Federal Trade Commission) decided that the superpower would unfairly increase office supply prices despite competition from the third-in-line OfficeMax, which did not have stores in many of the local markets that the merger would affect. A U.S. Court agreed. (Dalkir and Warren-Boulton, 2003.) It is not known if the merger will be attempted again, but the company is growing boundlessly without Office Depot's help.

In 2004 Staples purchased British rival Office World from the Globus group. Rebranding of these stores to the Staples brand took place in 2005. This lead to Staples branching out into a new country - Scotland. Its first store was in Finnieston, Glasgow in April 2005