Staples Opening Two Office ‘Superstores’

North Spokane’s newest office superstore will open Nov. 16 in a former grocery store.

Massachusetts-based Staples also will be opening a store across the state line in Coeur d’Alene’s Ironwood Plaza that day.

The North Side store, at Division and North Foothills Drive, is filling a space vacated by an Excell grocery store. Staples will lease the property from Tombari Enterprises Limited Partnership.

The store will be 24,000 square feet and will be the “prototypical superstore,” said Staples spokesperson Kim Shea.

The store will have “more than 7,000 deeply discounted office items” ranging from paper and pencils to computers and office furniture, Shea said.

Job interviewing for the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene stores should begin next month. Between 35 and 40 area residents will be hired at each store, Shea said.

Earlier this month, Staples announced its merger with the nation’s largest office supply company, Office Depot, which raises questions about the future of stores in the Inland Northwest. Office Depot has three stores in Spokane - at 4511 N. Division, 14008 E. Sprague and 1003 E. Third.

Shea said the merger should be complete within four months. At that time, she said, the company will re-evaluate areas such as Spokane where there is overlap and decide which stores will remain open.

Staples was interested in the North Division site because it’s on a major retail corridor, is convenient to downtown, and is near Gonzaga University.

“Education groups have become a target market for us,” Shea said. “Back to school is the second biggest selling season.”

, DataTimes