After 22 years, the Staples store in Sudbury is saying goodbye to its Kingsway location and moving a stone’s throw away to Marcus Drive in the Silver Hills Centre.
A spokesperson for Staples Canada said the office supply retail store will celebrate its official grand opening on Oct. 2.
Customers can expect an engaging shopping experience in a newly designed space with an expanded offering.
“Staples has been undergoing a transformation which started back in 2018. It has transformed itself from what was recognized as only a supplies warehouse to ‘The Working and Learning Company’ that we are today,” said Rachel Huckle, chief retail officer for Staples Canada.
“Part of our goal as we continue to accelerate our growth is to look for markets nationally to put our brand defining stores in. Sudbury is one of those locations.”
Huckle said that Sudbury is an important market for the retailer because the city continues to experience growth, and it prides itself on innovation.
“As we were thinking about locations, we knew that Sudbury would be a great place for us to innovate together,” she said.
“As ‘The Working and Learning Company,’ a big part of that is introducing more products, more services, and even opportunities for our customers to interact with our experts, and thus, create connections for them in the community to other experts and resources.”
Earlier this year, Staples Canada added a full new assortment across its entire channel.
Huckles said this includes new writing and creative tools and new vignettes for workspaces that takes into account the shift in people working hybrid or working from home during the pandemic.
“We’ve also elevated our tech. We’re introducing new technology like this amazing audio bar that people just love to be able to feel and experience and new wifi speakers,” she said.
“Just a lot of innovation that is consistent with where the market is going right now.”
Staples Canada said that it played an important role in helping small businesses continue to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Small businesses have been hit hard, and Staples has really been on the frontline throughout this pandemic helping them understand health protocols, adapting their prints, media, and marketing needs, or even from an ecommerce perspective,” said Huckle.
She explained that with the pivot to ecommerce during the pandemic, a lot of small businesses needed smaller packages branded with their information.
“We were able to personalize that for them and help them continue to operate even if their physical business had to close,” said Huckle.
“As we come out of the pandemic, and businesses continue to embrace a hybrid model, we can help them with customer acquisitions, print media, ecommerce solutions, and distributed cloud-based solutions to help them recover.”
Although COVID-19 brought its own set of challenges, Staples Canada said it made strategic decisions based on where they anticipated the market was heading.
“It got us thinking about what’s happening next and where our customers, consumers, and businesses need us most,” said Huckle.
“Not many people know that we offer essential business services as part of Staples Professional, for example. We supply a lot of facilities with cleaning products in addition to all our office and design offerings. We support everything from the individual customer to small, medium, and large enterprises across our ecosystem.”
Huckle said that she is excited for the new Staples location in Sudbury to open and she anticipates the new retail store will excel at meeting customers’ needs.
Customers can expect a brand-new store layout so that people can shop based on solutions that will help them the most.
Staples employees will continue to provide the excellent customer service that they had in the previous location, she said, and they will be trained on new product and service offerings so they can support customers who visit the store.
“We know that this is great for our associates and our colleagues in the store,” said Huckle.
“It uplifts them and gives us joy, but we also see the turnout and the support from the community go a long way in getting them energized and excited. We are super pumped for the grand opening.”
Colleen Romaniuk is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, a Government of Canada program, at the Sudbury Star.
