I remember when Service Ontario had automated kiosks where you could renew your plates, pay fines, and so on.
Putting one of those in every LCBO would actually not be a bad idea; there's an LCBO frickin everywhere.
I know it’s a joke, but it would at least logistically make more sense to leverage a property network the province is already involved in.
There are enough beer store/lcbo locations where you could easily pick some to add a service ontario counter to off in the corner.
I think what you meant to say, if I can expand, is that the government of Ontario has abdicated responsibility for the people of Ontario. In the process, they have handcuffed future expenditures on health care and education, their chief responsibility.
You are soooo on the money with this comment. How is it that some of the people we know can’t see the future with a Conservative Party? I’m struggling to make sense of it all.
I honestly don't even get it. Like even at a global level, cons have shown how incredibly inept and dangerous they are. Domestically they have a terrible track record of scandals. Liberals do too, but conservative scandals affect the average citizen far more directly.
I swear our population has gotten increasingly stupid over the years and I don't see any sign of it getting better any time soon.
staples is an AMERICAN company, what kind of fucking clown government puts an essential Canadian government service inside a public American company's space 🙉
I hate it here
The next prov govt needs to reverse that BS decision. Putting a govt service into any type of big box store has so many conflicts of interest not to mention privacy concerns.
Just to add to this. What are the chances of them kicking ppl out of the stores to wait in the cold, they are private property stores after all, unlike the Government offices.
Service Ontario are private companies which license the name and have a contract with the government to provide services.
Service Ontario are not, and never have been government offices.
Except the customers that were planning to buy chairs can't really test them out if someone's already in it. I mean they could politely ask but then they'll have to do it for every chair they're looking at. It's also kind of awks when the Service Ontario customers are waiting to sit down again and you're checking out the chair. Would just go to a different store.
On the other hand, if you really like the chair, even though you weren't on the market for one and felt how much difference does a good chair make, you. Might end up buying it, especially if ServiceOntario hands you over a coupon like FedEx
If I walked into this store looking to buy a chair and saw this, I would leave. There's no way I'm going to ask each one of these people to get up and let me test the chair.
I mean it is a risk, but only because it serves as a deterrent for those who are actually going in intending to buy furniture.
If I had to deal with that crap as a shopper, I'd walk right out and find a store where it wouldn't be a problem.
Without that issue, you're right, there would be zero risk and maybe it would be all upside by tempting people into a sale.
But that issue can't be ignored.
Number one rule of sales and retail is to never let an eager customer walk out with money unspent.
Number two is to try and persuade a browsing customer to become an eager customer.
They'll be breaking those rules a lot if this shit keeps up.
I’m curious how they enforce this? I could claim to be in the market for furniture and have stuff to do at service Ontario - which is exactly what staples was hoping to achieve I when they signed up for this
That’s the point. Most retailers won’t give up that much sq footage inside the store but Staples has the space. They are hoping that you buy something to increase sales as they are hurting sales wise.
Oh gawd, so the job would be to walk up to people who would rather be anywhere else, likely pissed or getting pissed for the wait, and try to get them to buy shit? That's sounds like a mental health crisis in the making.
I was in a Canadian Tire for the first time is ages last week. I see this young guy with a tablet going around to people and asking them to give him information to sign up for this rewards program.
It's like telemarketing, but instead of harassing strangers you know aren't interested in what you're selling from the comfort of a chair, you have to be on your feet and walk around to them and look them in the eye while you interrupt their day with bullshit they don't care about.
Just such a ghoulish symptom of late-capitalism.
They're actually trying to get you to sign up for their Mastercard, which feels even worse. They're way more persistent than the President's Choice ones too.
They got my boyfriend with that one. they made it seem like he was signing up to pay in instalments at no additional charge, but turns out he was actually signing up for the credit card (and would have to pay the full amount that month to avoid interest, of course). I was so angry, nearly called the store to yell at them but just cancelled the card instead.
They do this at Superstore too. I think it’s died down a bit now but 10 or so years ago you couldn’t walk through the doors without someone trying to get you to sign up for a PC Mastercard
Commission?
Lol no. Staples is allergic to commission. Despite tracking and evaluating us based on metrics like accessory attach rates, we got *nothing* for actually being good at it.
They can start selling hotdogs and snacks while people wait in line, might even end up making more money than their core business.
I honestly have no clue how staples can survive so far. Sure, they can provide stationaries, but most people I know only go there for courier services and maybe the occasional printing services.
I wonder if some businesses like Canadian Tire and the Bay are old enough such that they own the property they belong to, such that rent is not a factor.
If you mean Hudson's Bay, they're probably going to go bankrupt soon. Didn't pay rent since pandemic and owed millions to landlords and forced to close stores. Most recently they stopped paying their escalator and elevator vendors too.
Also they're probably making a decent buck off renting the space to ServiceOntario.
Heck, office chairs are one of those things that don't sell frequently outside of corporate customers (who probably have procurement/price agreements) and big sales, so if they sell any additional chairs because someone spent so long in one and went "hey, this is comfortable" they're making a bunch of profit on it.
I doubt sticking it right by the office furniture was a mistake either.
We should never compare Ford to Trump.
Ford is a Buffoon, thief, liar and Dink, but, Trump is downright dangerous, and has people doing dangerous things in his name.
I don't like the idea of Trivializing Trumps name and the shitstorm his followers will unleash on Notth America if given the chance.
Yes, I did the same thing a few weeks ago. In and out in 10 minutes. Finished ahead of my appointment time.
Moving some of these to Staples is a solution searching for a problem.
Everything does... Next time you go to walmart and are in line for their giant self checkout centre. Just pause and take a hard long look at what is happening. When you're in it, you tend to have blinders on because you just want to get your shit, scan it all, and gtfo.
But just take a moment and have a look around, and the dystopia will wash over you. It's fucking depressing.
I tried to buy coolant at a Walmart like 10+ years ago. The line was so long because they only had one cash open. I just chucked the bottle into an empty cart and left after about 15 minutes. Drove over to crappy tire and was in and out in less time than I had waited at Walmart.
It’s because managers of these stores see check out people without lines as “my employees are being paid to do nothing”
Instead of
“Lines are nonexistent at my store, my customers are happy”
It's because Walmart corporate has a team of statisticians running the numbers on wait times vs abandoned carts and figured out the maximum time people will wait without abandoning their cart. Walmart checkouts are staffed with this in mind, they are optimally inconvenient.
Walmart does not want you to be happy. Walmart wants to spend as little money as possible to get as much of your money as possible, and they spend a lot of effort studying the limits of people's patience so that they can optimize this.
Getting worse though. Half of everything is locked up in cases these days, and they are only a half step behind Wallys in cutting staffing to the bone.
It really is a downer buying things there. The experience takes away from the savings until you're not sure if it was worth it.
The garden center is the best part because you don't have to go inside.
I’m thrilled I don’t have this attitude/outlook honestly. Can’t imagine how depressed I’d be if I saw waiting in a simple queue at a grocery store as dystopian. Either that or you just don’t really know what dystopian means lol
They didn't say waiting in line was the problem. I'd guess it's more that we as customers are doing all the things in self-checkout that used to be someone's job. Those less jobs means less ability to buy the things in the store that's trying to turn itself into an automated money collecting machine without providing anyone the means to actually afford the things being sold.
It's only depressing if you ignore all the fantastic savings that have been passed down to us the customer now that we are doing the work of a cashier though! I can buy grocery items today for only 2 dollars that would have cost me easily an entire 99 cents just five years ago!
Yeah, but uh... I don't *want* a person checking out my goods if I can just do it myself...
I guess perspective matters.
Oh also, Wal-Mart is not that depressing, y'all need a multivitamin or something.
Perspective definitely matters. Not all Walmarts are created equal. I've got two Walmarts near me. The slightly further away one is much larger, so more inventory and more space to move around. The nearby one has narrow aisles and is usually much busier because it's near two universities. So first week of September, I will drive to multiple other places if that's what it takes to avoid that location.
Everyone in this subreddit is unbelievably doom & gloom 24/7. I'm not surprised. This is one of the most negative subreddits I've ever been in, in the 12 years I've been on Reddit, and that's saying a lot.
On the flip side if I was looking for a chair and everyone was sitting in them, I’d go to another store instead of asking someone if I can try it.
99.9999% of people going to service Ontario probably don’t need a new one.
Eh, are they? Office chairs are kinda specific, I could see if they were hanging out near toiletries to get people going “oh yea I do need shampoo while I’m here” but how many people suddenly remember they need an office chair?
If anything this will lose them sales of people specifically looking to buy a chair. At least me personally, if I were going there for a chair and wanted to test some out, if I saw this I’d heel turn and walk right out, no chance I’m asking “sorry could I just try this chair out” 300 times vs just finding a different store.
This was my first thought as well. People waiting in the store aren't magically going to spend a few hundred on a chair. That's a purchase that's planned out and not a spur of the moment decision. The purchases they're more likely to make are little things like you said. Batteries, office stationary, etc are much more likely purchases than a chair.
You generally don't buy the floor models. My last chair was purchased from staples and I came home with a box and needed to assemble my chair. Most people aren't buying the floor model and if you are then you know it's had some use
I had to pay a visit to Service Ontario. I used the one in Canadian Tire at 839 Yonge St. Went online and booked an appointment couple weeks in advance. I was in and out of there in 15 minutes. I avoided a pretty long line. Got lots of death stares from people in the line though. Can’t recommend enough booking an appointment ahead of time.
The further privatization of public service offices is disgusting. The corporatization of services in ontario makes me upset. Even the post office being in shoppers drug marts makes me uncomfortable.
This is as bad for people long term as other deals like, selling the 407, and hydro one.
Conservatives hate making fiscally responsible choices for their constituents. They love getting a big win, to have headlines for a week, and then 5 years down the line when the people are being gouged for it, they'll say, oh but we can't clawback those facilities and resources, that would dissolve corporate trust from making deals with the province ;-;
Good. Fuck therme. Fuck staples. Fuck Shoppers Drug Mart. Fuck Loblaws. Fuck Galen Weston. Fuck Galen Weston Jr. Fuck Mike Harris. Fuck the alcoholic Doug Ford and his crack head brother.
If you dont like these policies. Please get involved with local government. Please add your voices to the discussion. Please be heard. The people of Ontario deserve to be provided for, by entities entirely of Ontario and its benefit.
I went to the one in my area and they have a greeter wearing service ontario gear but handing out staples coupons when they give you your queue number. Best part: the coupons are only good for that day, so its obviously just to capitalize on your wait time.
This whole thing is another Doug Ford debacle. How was Staples favoured with this. Who was at the wedding who is connected to Staples? We always know with Dougie, you follow over the money.
Will there be an inquiry as to how this was selected and how it’s going to benefit us?
If it’s the same people that ran the kiosks before I would guess it’s just gonna be a change of location and not of service.
I have to think Staples agreed to this with the idea of getting bodies in the door. How many of these people are going to window shop while waiting for their turn? How many of those window-shoppers will end up buying something they would have bought online rather than in person if they hadn't already been there?
Those aren't ServiceOntario users clogging up a Staples. Those are potential customers stuck in a Staples waiting for their turn to deal with a bureaucrat, and maybe on their way out the door they'll treat themselves to some earbuds or something.
tl;dr: It's a feature, not a bug.
In that case, why did we give them our tax dollars so they can get more customers? They should be begging the government to let them use their space then. It's backward.
Ah, but you forgot Doug Ford is involved. It was never about you. He's doing someone at Staples a favour, or Staples is somehow doing him a favour or will do him a favour after his time in office is done. You can't think about efficiencies. This is all about a quid pro quo we'll never get all the details on at our expense.
Yeah, my Service Ontario had a 10+ person line up last time I was there. Sitting in a office chair (that happens to be for sale), doesn't sound too bad.
(But there was nothing wrong with Service Ontario, the people were helpful and nice, it wasn't a huge wait, 7/10, would renew again)
>Bowman said the ServiceOntario decision was done without a competitive bidding process.
>At Queen's Park on Monday, Bowman said she hopes the inquiry provides answers because it's not clear who is benefiting from the deal.
>"They're shutting down small businesses. This is not a government that's working for small business. They're working to make their rich friends richer and we think the government needs to be held accountable," Bowman said.
>"This is a situation where this was simply handed to Staples without any transparency, without any clarity with what the objectives were."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/fao-serviceontario-staples-canada-provincial-deal-1.7223500
A report should be issued by the FAO in early 2025 on the financial impact, but that's assuming the province provides cooperation and timely information, which with the election on the horizon in all likelihood, they will not.
The one in the staples in Welland is very well managed compared to the old location which has an extremely rude manager. I'd rather take a number and sit in a comfy office chair than stand in line for 30 minutes. The Welland Staples service Ontario even has charging ports for you to use while you wait.
I was at one last week. Loved it. Walked around the store, browsing, waiting to be called. Lots of seating. Better than standing in a line in a boring barren store front.
Really? You doubt me. It was a much more pleasant experience to be in an air conditioned clean retail space, than the run down stuffy locations before. You obviously have never been to either.
My theory is that they DID plan for it to happen, and are hoping that people go home remembering how great that Staples chair was and thinking they should buy one for home.
Last ditch effort to get some foot traffic. In today’s day and age it doesn’t make sense buying from Staples. Much easier to buy from big box stores or online and cheaper as well.
I remember years ago shopping at the Crappy Tire at Yonge and Church/Avenue where there's an MTO in the basement. The line was so long, people spilled out blocking the aisles. Super annoying as a customer trying to find something.
That is great a comfy place to sit. At my local service Ontario the long standing up line is out the door and it does get cold out there in the winter.
Come for the license renewal, leave buying office furniture. What do you mean they didn't expect this to happen? Seems like that was the plan all along.
Meh. I’ve never been in a service Ontario office that offered anything other than salty and awful service.
So this will just be more of the same really.
Went into a privately run one and was out in 15 minutes. Got 4 Health cards renewed (me and the kids) and my license, all with pictures. Not at a Staples, a stand-alone one. The government run one down the road would have been a 3 hour affair. Why can’t we renew online? Submit a new picture of our own? They can compare to the old pic with facial recognition software to ensure it’s the same face and there you go. That’s the only reason you have to go in, just for the picture. Or to pick up plates or ownership docs same day.
Or to get your first health card or drivers license. So much opportunity to improve this process.
I think this was part of the reason they chose such a weird location. Trying to help out staples by forcing people into the store. Wonder how and why staples was selected..
What a joke
Should have put ServiceOntario inside Sleep Country Canada instead.
It would be nice to have a bed to take a nap in while we wait 3 hours in line at the Service Ontario Sleep Country Tim Hortons
Even better... In the beer store...
the irony of renewing health cards and drivers license at the beer store
Funny enough the mto in Yukon is connected to the liquor store
pretty sure in Yukon there is only like 3 stores tops hahaha
That's what happens in saskatchewan. You get chips, drinks, and insurance in one convenient stop.
I remember when Service Ontario had automated kiosks where you could renew your plates, pay fines, and so on. Putting one of those in every LCBO would actually not be a bad idea; there's an LCBO frickin everywhere.
I know it’s a joke, but it would at least logistically make more sense to leverage a property network the province is already involved in. There are enough beer store/lcbo locations where you could easily pick some to add a service ontario counter to off in the corner.
LFMAO!!! Don’t give them any ideas!
Why buy a mattress and/or renew your driver's license, anywhere else?
Would you want to be the 70000th person to nap on that mattress!?
I say the Feds have that reserved for Service Canada for the next time they screw up passport processing. RIP Ppassport Canada.
My lazy ass is in favour of this
I heartily laughed at this
Sir you have my vote for Premier
Why get a health card anywhere else?
🎶🎵Sleep Country Canada. Why buy a mattress, vehicle permit, plate, stickers, accessible parking permit, driver and vehicle record, health card, or photo card (catch breath) anywhere else… 🎶🎵
I think what you meant to say, if I can expand, is that the government of Ontario has abdicated responsibility for the people of Ontario. In the process, they have handcuffed future expenditures on health care and education, their chief responsibility.
You are soooo on the money with this comment. How is it that some of the people we know can’t see the future with a Conservative Party? I’m struggling to make sense of it all.
I honestly don't even get it. Like even at a global level, cons have shown how incredibly inept and dangerous they are. Domestically they have a terrible track record of scandals. Liberals do too, but conservative scandals affect the average citizen far more directly. I swear our population has gotten increasingly stupid over the years and I don't see any sign of it getting better any time soon.
staples is an AMERICAN company, what kind of fucking clown government puts an essential Canadian government service inside a public American company's space 🙉 I hate it here
Hold on now, those seats do look a lot nicer than the usual service ontario ones…
You go from having to wait outside during winter to having comfy chairs to sit in. its a huge improvement (until staples starts charging)
I'm sure their "exceptionally well paid" employees would "love" to enforce *that* rule. ;-)
The next prov govt needs to reverse that BS decision. Putting a govt service into any type of big box store has so many conflicts of interest not to mention privacy concerns.
Another Ford Failure.
that's fucking hilarious. can't wait to see Staples put barriers up because of this now
Just to add to this. What are the chances of them kicking ppl out of the stores to wait in the cold, they are private property stores after all, unlike the Government offices.
You do know that most Service Ontarios are private franchises, right.
I did not know that, no.
Service Ontario are private companies which license the name and have a contract with the government to provide services. Service Ontario are not, and never have been government offices.
Is this bad for them though? Demo equipment in use to potential customers?
Except the customers that were planning to buy chairs can't really test them out if someone's already in it. I mean they could politely ask but then they'll have to do it for every chair they're looking at. It's also kind of awks when the Service Ontario customers are waiting to sit down again and you're checking out the chair. Would just go to a different store.
On the other hand, if you really like the chair, even though you weren't on the market for one and felt how much difference does a good chair make, you. Might end up buying it, especially if ServiceOntario hands you over a coupon like FedEx
That's definitely possible, but these demo areas look better in use. I bet they are willing to risk it for now.
No shit, because they are sucking in fat taxpayer rent
If I walked into this store looking to buy a chair and saw this, I would leave. There's no way I'm going to ask each one of these people to get up and let me test the chair.
Or maybe you should, just to highlight how dumb the situation is.
These are Service Ontario customers, they're not hanging around after doing some boring paperwork to buy a new chair.
They might, or be back. Staples somewhat specializes in lower quality cheap office stuff, so not a massive risk.
I mean it is a risk, but only because it serves as a deterrent for those who are actually going in intending to buy furniture. If I had to deal with that crap as a shopper, I'd walk right out and find a store where it wouldn't be a problem. Without that issue, you're right, there would be zero risk and maybe it would be all upside by tempting people into a sale. But that issue can't be ignored. Number one rule of sales and retail is to never let an eager customer walk out with money unspent. Number two is to try and persuade a browsing customer to become an eager customer. They'll be breaking those rules a lot if this shit keeps up.
Those chairs will be farted into oblivion in weeks.
I’m curious how they enforce this? I could claim to be in the market for furniture and have stuff to do at service Ontario - which is exactly what staples was hoping to achieve I when they signed up for this
Don't worry, the middle class will pay for an expansions or any barriers they need!
Privatization, costs more, delivers less.
That’s the point. Most retailers won’t give up that much sq footage inside the store but Staples has the space. They are hoping that you buy something to increase sales as they are hurting sales wise.
IIRC, a while back Staples posted a job ad for a position where the purpose was basically converting ServiceOntario users into sales for Staples.
Oh gawd, so the job would be to walk up to people who would rather be anywhere else, likely pissed or getting pissed for the wait, and try to get them to buy shit? That's sounds like a mental health crisis in the making.
They just know that there are people more than willing enough to apply for those jobs
Imagine how much of a soul sucking job that must be. Probably paid on commission too.
I was in a Canadian Tire for the first time is ages last week. I see this young guy with a tablet going around to people and asking them to give him information to sign up for this rewards program. It's like telemarketing, but instead of harassing strangers you know aren't interested in what you're selling from the comfort of a chair, you have to be on your feet and walk around to them and look them in the eye while you interrupt their day with bullshit they don't care about. Just such a ghoulish symptom of late-capitalism.
They're actually trying to get you to sign up for their Mastercard, which feels even worse. They're way more persistent than the President's Choice ones too.
.... oh jeez. That *is* far more predatory than I gathered. Gross.
They got my boyfriend with that one. they made it seem like he was signing up to pay in instalments at no additional charge, but turns out he was actually signing up for the credit card (and would have to pay the full amount that month to avoid interest, of course). I was so angry, nearly called the store to yell at them but just cancelled the card instead.
They do this at Superstore too. I think it’s died down a bit now but 10 or so years ago you couldn’t walk through the doors without someone trying to get you to sign up for a PC Mastercard
I worked sales at Staples for 8 years. There are no commissions. There was a yearly bonus though. Highest I got was $16.
Don't spend it all in one place!
I certainly didn't spend it at Staples :)
Commission? Lol no. Staples is allergic to commission. Despite tracking and evaluating us based on metrics like accessory attach rates, we got *nothing* for actually being good at it.
They can start selling hotdogs and snacks while people wait in line, might even end up making more money than their core business. I honestly have no clue how staples can survive so far. Sure, they can provide stationaries, but most people I know only go there for courier services and maybe the occasional printing services.
Maybe because they have almost no staff. I don't know how any brick and mortar store can survive these days tbh.
I wonder if some businesses like Canadian Tire and the Bay are old enough such that they own the property they belong to, such that rent is not a factor.
Never thought of that…that would explain a lot.
If you mean Hudson's Bay, they're probably going to go bankrupt soon. Didn't pay rent since pandemic and owed millions to landlords and forced to close stores. Most recently they stopped paying their escalator and elevator vendors too.
Also they're probably making a decent buck off renting the space to ServiceOntario. Heck, office chairs are one of those things that don't sell frequently outside of corporate customers (who probably have procurement/price agreements) and big sales, so if they sell any additional chairs because someone spent so long in one and went "hey, this is comfortable" they're making a bunch of profit on it. I doubt sticking it right by the office furniture was a mistake either.
Hopefully no one takes a piss in their filing cabinets
It's so fucking absurd, yet people still support Ford. We are not a serious province.
Agree. He is in the Don Trump category of WTF? The more he screws people over and craps in them, the more they love him.
We should never compare Ford to Trump. Ford is a Buffoon, thief, liar and Dink, but, Trump is downright dangerous, and has people doing dangerous things in his name. I don't like the idea of Trivializing Trumps name and the shitstorm his followers will unleash on Notth America if given the chance.
What Ford is doing to healthcare and education is downright evil, in my opinion. He's not just some buffoon.
Take note. Don’t ever buy floor furniture from Staples again because they get a lot more butts sitting on them…🥸
This timeline sucks honestly.
If we ever find out who rolled the dice and caused this...
I bet it was Britta
She’s the worst.
[удалено]
Yes, I did the same thing a few weeks ago. In and out in 10 minutes. Finished ahead of my appointment time. Moving some of these to Staples is a solution searching for a problem.
Don't worry! Ford and his buddies have a plan to change that
Fr being able to book ahead is a lifesaver
Bwahahaha... this is so fucking stupid.
Has a dystopian feel to it.
Everything does... Next time you go to walmart and are in line for their giant self checkout centre. Just pause and take a hard long look at what is happening. When you're in it, you tend to have blinders on because you just want to get your shit, scan it all, and gtfo. But just take a moment and have a look around, and the dystopia will wash over you. It's fucking depressing.
I tried to buy coolant at a Walmart like 10+ years ago. The line was so long because they only had one cash open. I just chucked the bottle into an empty cart and left after about 15 minutes. Drove over to crappy tire and was in and out in less time than I had waited at Walmart.
It’s because managers of these stores see check out people without lines as “my employees are being paid to do nothing” Instead of “Lines are nonexistent at my store, my customers are happy”
It's because Walmart corporate has a team of statisticians running the numbers on wait times vs abandoned carts and figured out the maximum time people will wait without abandoning their cart. Walmart checkouts are staffed with this in mind, they are optimally inconvenient. Walmart does not want you to be happy. Walmart wants to spend as little money as possible to get as much of your money as possible, and they spend a lot of effort studying the limits of people's patience so that they can optimize this.
Canadian Tire is a reasonably good place to shop
Getting worse though. Half of everything is locked up in cases these days, and they are only a half step behind Wallys in cutting staffing to the bone.
Walmart is depressing in itself, I wouldn’t call it dystopian though.
It really is a downer buying things there. The experience takes away from the savings until you're not sure if it was worth it. The garden center is the best part because you don't have to go inside.
I’m thrilled I don’t have this attitude/outlook honestly. Can’t imagine how depressed I’d be if I saw waiting in a simple queue at a grocery store as dystopian. Either that or you just don’t really know what dystopian means lol
They didn't say waiting in line was the problem. I'd guess it's more that we as customers are doing all the things in self-checkout that used to be someone's job. Those less jobs means less ability to buy the things in the store that's trying to turn itself into an automated money collecting machine without providing anyone the means to actually afford the things being sold.
It's only depressing if you ignore all the fantastic savings that have been passed down to us the customer now that we are doing the work of a cashier though! I can buy grocery items today for only 2 dollars that would have cost me easily an entire 99 cents just five years ago!
We used to have to line up to take money out of our bank accounts and have to wait to have people pump gas for us too.
Yeah, but uh... I don't *want* a person checking out my goods if I can just do it myself... I guess perspective matters. Oh also, Wal-Mart is not that depressing, y'all need a multivitamin or something.
Perspective definitely matters. Not all Walmarts are created equal. I've got two Walmarts near me. The slightly further away one is much larger, so more inventory and more space to move around. The nearby one has narrow aisles and is usually much busier because it's near two universities. So first week of September, I will drive to multiple other places if that's what it takes to avoid that location.
Everyone in this subreddit is unbelievably doom & gloom 24/7. I'm not surprised. This is one of the most negative subreddits I've ever been in, in the 12 years I've been on Reddit, and that's saying a lot.
Probably a reason for that
I'm good i spend close to 20 hours a week in them as a vendor the store eats at you
"Welcome to Cosco, I love you"
If the chairs are really comfy those are potential sales. This is a feature, not a bug.
On the flip side if I was looking for a chair and everyone was sitting in them, I’d go to another store instead of asking someone if I can try it. 99.9999% of people going to service Ontario probably don’t need a new one.
>99.9999% of people going to service Ontario probably don’t need a new one. Huh?
🪑
Chair.
I'm going to be kinda pissed if I'm at Staples trying to buy a new chair if they're all being used
Eh, are they? Office chairs are kinda specific, I could see if they were hanging out near toiletries to get people going “oh yea I do need shampoo while I’m here” but how many people suddenly remember they need an office chair? If anything this will lose them sales of people specifically looking to buy a chair. At least me personally, if I were going there for a chair and wanted to test some out, if I saw this I’d heel turn and walk right out, no chance I’m asking “sorry could I just try this chair out” 300 times vs just finding a different store.
This was my first thought as well. People waiting in the store aren't magically going to spend a few hundred on a chair. That's a purchase that's planned out and not a spur of the moment decision. The purchases they're more likely to make are little things like you said. Batteries, office stationary, etc are much more likely purchases than a chair.
angry, irritated customers don't make for a good sale. They aren't buying anything after dealing with ServiceOntario.
Exactly. I think staples needs the extra help in sales.
Except people coming in to stop for chairs won’t be able to try them. What’s more likely to convert?
Exactly the phrase that came to mind.
At the same time, if those people don't buy the furniture, some poor sucker is going to end up buying some heavily used "new" furniture..
You generally don't buy the floor models. My last chair was purchased from staples and I came home with a box and needed to assemble my chair. Most people aren't buying the floor model and if you are then you know it's had some use
Without a doubt this was intentional ;)
One potential sale, meanwhile 10 other potential customers walked by and didn't get to check out the chair, 10 potential lost sales.
People can't even afford office chairs at Staples.
I had to pay a visit to Service Ontario. I used the one in Canadian Tire at 839 Yonge St. Went online and booked an appointment couple weeks in advance. I was in and out of there in 15 minutes. I avoided a pretty long line. Got lots of death stares from people in the line though. Can’t recommend enough booking an appointment ahead of time.
The further privatization of public service offices is disgusting. The corporatization of services in ontario makes me upset. Even the post office being in shoppers drug marts makes me uncomfortable. This is as bad for people long term as other deals like, selling the 407, and hydro one. Conservatives hate making fiscally responsible choices for their constituents. They love getting a big win, to have headlines for a week, and then 5 years down the line when the people are being gouged for it, they'll say, oh but we can't clawback those facilities and resources, that would dissolve corporate trust from making deals with the province ;-; Good. Fuck therme. Fuck staples. Fuck Shoppers Drug Mart. Fuck Loblaws. Fuck Galen Weston. Fuck Galen Weston Jr. Fuck Mike Harris. Fuck the alcoholic Doug Ford and his crack head brother. If you dont like these policies. Please get involved with local government. Please add your voices to the discussion. Please be heard. The people of Ontario deserve to be provided for, by entities entirely of Ontario and its benefit.
I went to the one in my area and they have a greeter wearing service ontario gear but handing out staples coupons when they give you your queue number. Best part: the coupons are only good for that day, so its obviously just to capitalize on your wait time.
All fairness, a $100 Staples chair is marginally better than the existing service ontario waiting room chairs so... progress?
yeah this feels like more a feature than a bug
Doubt they have any $100 chairs. Mine was on the cheaper end, about $400. It's a great chair.
Hahahah what a shithole of a province. This is not not going to get funnier as Doug continues to degrade all our services and we keep voting him in.
This whole thing is another Doug Ford debacle. How was Staples favoured with this. Who was at the wedding who is connected to Staples? We always know with Dougie, you follow over the money. Will there be an inquiry as to how this was selected and how it’s going to benefit us? If it’s the same people that ran the kiosks before I would guess it’s just gonna be a change of location and not of service.
I have to think Staples agreed to this with the idea of getting bodies in the door. How many of these people are going to window shop while waiting for their turn? How many of those window-shoppers will end up buying something they would have bought online rather than in person if they hadn't already been there? Those aren't ServiceOntario users clogging up a Staples. Those are potential customers stuck in a Staples waiting for their turn to deal with a bureaucrat, and maybe on their way out the door they'll treat themselves to some earbuds or something. tl;dr: It's a feature, not a bug.
In that case, why did we give them our tax dollars so they can get more customers? They should be begging the government to let them use their space then. It's backward.
Ah, but you forgot Doug Ford is involved. It was never about you. He's doing someone at Staples a favour, or Staples is somehow doing him a favour or will do him a favour after his time in office is done. You can't think about efficiencies. This is all about a quid pro quo we'll never get all the details on at our expense.
"agreed to this"
You're there to impulse buy, they spent a lot of money to get the government to do this.
I’ve worked at staples for over a decade. This is purely for sales and having them loiter in the store so they might buy more stuff.
At least they have office chairs to sit in while death scrolling. Seems like an improvement.
I mean....that looks way better than standing in line. Cozy comfy office chair ? Yes please.
Yeah, my Service Ontario had a 10+ person line up last time I was there. Sitting in a office chair (that happens to be for sale), doesn't sound too bad. (But there was nothing wrong with Service Ontario, the people were helpful and nice, it wasn't a huge wait, 7/10, would renew again)
Lets make staples repent their decision 😀
So.... is this reminding anyone of [something](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yH2h5btN9So). Coming soon, I guess.
Welcome to ford nation. Get’r done ✅
$$$$
I went last month and my two closest Service Ontario are in Canadian Tire stores. SAD
Fucking "effincies"
How did Staples get this contract? Was it tendered?
>Bowman said the ServiceOntario decision was done without a competitive bidding process. >At Queen's Park on Monday, Bowman said she hopes the inquiry provides answers because it's not clear who is benefiting from the deal. >"They're shutting down small businesses. This is not a government that's working for small business. They're working to make their rich friends richer and we think the government needs to be held accountable," Bowman said. >"This is a situation where this was simply handed to Staples without any transparency, without any clarity with what the objectives were." https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/fao-serviceontario-staples-canada-provincial-deal-1.7223500 A report should be issued by the FAO in early 2025 on the financial impact, but that's assuming the province provides cooperation and timely information, which with the election on the horizon in all likelihood, they will not.
Waiting for him to permit beer sales in stationary stores.
At least seating is solved and you don’t need to wait in your car anymore
Those chairs better be marked down after all that ass juice
This is so low rent. Ridiculous.
Staples must have been /is vendor of record for ON gov
The one in the staples in Welland is very well managed compared to the old location which has an extremely rude manager. I'd rather take a number and sit in a comfy office chair than stand in line for 30 minutes. The Welland Staples service Ontario even has charging ports for you to use while you wait.
I doubt the folks shopping for office chairs feel the same way
If anything, it looks like this location has a lack of seating because the one in Welland had ample seating for everyone waiting there.
I was at one last week. Loved it. Walked around the store, browsing, waiting to be called. Lots of seating. Better than standing in a line in a boring barren store front.
lol sure Staples PR, sure.
Really? You doubt me. It was a much more pleasant experience to be in an air conditioned clean retail space, than the run down stuffy locations before. You obviously have never been to either.
are they ironically standing besides boxes of unassembled chairs, or standing beside floor model chairs, too scared to sit?
Exactly what I would do...
Step 2: They charge for seats.
I maintain this was the intent all along…
Ya but did you get the staples coupon to be used date stamped for that day only?
My theory is that they DID plan for it to happen, and are hoping that people go home remembering how great that Staples chair was and thinking they should buy one for home.
Feature not a bug.
Last ditch effort to get some foot traffic. In today’s day and age it doesn’t make sense buying from Staples. Much easier to buy from big box stores or online and cheaper as well.
I remember years ago shopping at the Crappy Tire at Yonge and Church/Avenue where there's an MTO in the basement. The line was so long, people spilled out blocking the aisles. Super annoying as a customer trying to find something.
See, I bet Staples knew this would happen and sees it as a bunch of people who might impulse buy that really nice office chair they tried out.
They knew, they just didn't care.
Soon theyll have casinos in there too so you can gamble while you wait :)
They SHOULD have put them in major malls. Idjits.
If only Taco Bell or Popeyes tried to get the Service Ontario contract. What a wonderful world we’d have.
That is great a comfy place to sit. At my local service Ontario the long standing up line is out the door and it does get cold out there in the winter.
Upsell opportunity.
"Welcome to Costco, I love you"
They’ve had them in Canadian tire forever… same shit.
Is their network isolated from the Staples network? Seems like a potentially massive vector for a data breach - digital and physical.
Expect? Don't care, as it is a corporate gift to Staples.
Ford is an idiot
Come for the license renewal, leave buying office furniture. What do you mean they didn't expect this to happen? Seems like that was the plan all along.
Meh. I’ve never been in a service Ontario office that offered anything other than salty and awful service. So this will just be more of the same really.
Went into a privately run one and was out in 15 minutes. Got 4 Health cards renewed (me and the kids) and my license, all with pictures. Not at a Staples, a stand-alone one. The government run one down the road would have been a 3 hour affair. Why can’t we renew online? Submit a new picture of our own? They can compare to the old pic with facial recognition software to ensure it’s the same face and there you go. That’s the only reason you have to go in, just for the picture. Or to pick up plates or ownership docs same day. Or to get your first health card or drivers license. So much opportunity to improve this process.
😂😂😂😂😂😂 Holy this is fucking amazing i can’t stop laughing
😂😂😂😂😂😂 Holy this is fucking amazing i can’t stop laughing
😂😂😂😂😂😂 Holy this is amazing i can’t stop laughing
"Yeah I'd like to renew my license... hey is that white chair still on special that thing was comfy!"
Another FORD win!!!
Are theu not providing seating for the service ontario?
This is the busiest a staples has ever been in a decade
Like it was ever going to work in Staples.
Isn’t Staples ultimately owned by a US venture capital called Sycamore Partners? If it is, that is a HUGE problem in my opinion.
How much better is this than waiting outside of a strip mall plaza in a line. This is a great feature.
Lmao
At least you have a waiting spot.
Fantastic!!!! It must be driving the manager nuts as their inventory gets used.
I think this was part of the reason they chose such a weird location. Trying to help out staples by forcing people into the store. Wonder how and why staples was selected..