Office Depot 2Q Same-Store Sales Drop 10%

Delray Beach, Fla. Office Depot announced Tuesday that the slowing economy has driven second-quarter same-store sales down 10%.

The company also said that weakening business conditions have pushed total company sales down slightly in the second quarter.

Office Depot said it expects the economic environment to be "difficult" for the rest of the year, but predicts profit margins will improve sequentially in the third and fourth quarters.

Elsewhere on the office-supply retail front, Framingham, Mass.-based Staples has declared July 8 as the official start of the 2008 back-to-school shopping season. The company will commemorate the self-declared day by opening the NASDAQ market on Tuesday and sounding the “first bell” of the school-supplies shopping season.

A 2008 Staples survey revealed that an overwhelming majority of moms plan ahead when shopping for back-to-school items. Seventy-four percent shop two weeks to a month before school starts.