Pros
Great place to "cut your teeth" as a starting role. Varied and intense workload providing multi-channel experience. Office Products is still quite a friendly industry so not as aggressive as some. In my time there there were a number of people who had been with the organization a long time and were happy to help you learn and advance, However, with a number of consolidations, re-locations and masses of redundancies I think the majority of these people have now moved on.
Kontras
Poor work/life balance with a heavy workload. Much of this was driven by a resistance to change and masses of bureaucracy that one had to go through to get anything implemented. Also it felt like every decision had to be checked and ratified by commission and there was little scope for creativity. This meant most simple tasks took much longer than they should/could. Also it meant that we were unable to react quickly to changing micro and macro circumstances. There was also a lack of ambition to discuss and embrace new ideas. Staples also paid poorly for the area/industry, especially when you consider their location, and there appeared to be a ceiling to internal promotion making it difficult to advance your career beyond a certain level or move horizontally to different departments.