Pros
Staples is very Eco friendly. They have programs like, ink and toner recycling for customers, along with cell phone and batteries. Internally the employees are strongly encouraged to recycle their paper and all cardboard. Bonuses at the associate level are descent depending on how well your store preforms. Leads receive a bit more and assistance managers and general managers are well paid in bonuses even if they don't make their goals. The MIT program seems to be another way to advance IF you can get approved. It is a grantee promotion to assistant or general manager if you are willing to move.
Cons
Staples as a whole only cares about how much money they can get into their executives pockets (at least it feels like that most of the time). They corporate office has cut labor (I'm guessing at the actual percent) by 75% at least! Where they would have 2 or 3 people in one department now they only have 1, sometimes none at all. On top of that at the associate level there is double the responsibility and less time to do it in. Staples needs to pay their associates more money an hour. I know this seems like a simple concept but it works, pay more money, get better results. Lets face it, it is only retail. Almost any bum can walk off the street and do it, right? No. In most retail environments it's a sell's culture. You don't sell you don't have a job. I would say most of the serious sales associates out there does their homework on their product, roleplays on each other to help focus their sale's pitch, anything to make them better. Staples should reward those associates with better hourly pay. Pay them what they are worth. The minimum does not cut it and that is what they pay, exactly the the minimum they have to. The warehouse. This system is so unbelievably a train wreck it is not even funny. The system is setup to where if product is lost on the way to the store from the warehouse the store takes the hit on cost. If the product is lost on the way to the warehouse from the store it is still the stores fault. The warehouse has NO blame or accountability set upon them what so ever! Christmas time is the worst.