Friday, March 19, 2021

[UPDATE] Office Depot Closing Two More Metro Atlanta Stores

ToNeTo Atlanta has learned that at least two Atlanta area Office Depot stores will be closing in the coming weeks.  The stores, located in Sandy Springs and East Cobb, started their liquidation sales Thursday, offering in-stock merchandise for up to 30% off original prices.   The Sandy Springs store, in Hammond Exchange at Hammond Drive and Roswell Road, is 20,065 square feet and helps anchor a center also home to Petco, Marshalls and Whole Foods Market.  In East Cobb, the 28,000 square foot Office Depot is located in Highland Plaza along Sandy Plains Road, where fellow anchors include Publix and Home Depot.  

Office Depot merged with rival office goods retailer OfficeMax in 2013, and in the years since has consolidated its combined store fleet and reduced their overall store count.   

Office Depot/OfficeMax has in years since the merger closed several other Atlanta area locations including those in Midtown, Tucker, Toco Hills, Roswell, Smyrna and Suwanee, among others.  ToNeTo Atlanta exclusively reported December 14 that cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty plans to open in a portion of the former Toco Hills Office Depot, while Burlington plans to open a new store in the former Office Depot in Briarcliff Village near Northlake Mall in Tucker. 

Although many may not recall, the popular and highly successful Trader Joe's on Peachtree Road in Buckhead occupies a onetime OfficeMax.  

The Sandy Springs and East Cobb stores expect to continue liquidation sales until mid-May or until all merchandise is sold.  

In a post Thursday, CNBC retail reporter Lauren Thomas wrote that for the first time in years, retailers plan to open more stores than they close, with Coresight Research saying retailers in the U.S. have announced 3,199 store openings and 2,548 closures.  The closure of the two well-located Office Depot stores could be appealing to other retailers such as the aforementioned Ulta Beauty and Burlington, as well as TJMaxx (and perhaps their new Homesense store) and Popshelf (a new concept from Dollar General). 

Following the Sandy Springs and East Cobb closures, Office Depot will continue to operate several Atlanta area stores including those in Buckhead (Buckhead Crossing), Howell Mill (The District at Howell Mill), Chamblee, Atlanta (Edgewood Retail District) and Sandy Springs (Perimeter Pointe), among others.

Update 3/19: We have confirmed that a third Atlanta area Office Depot is also closing.  The Office Depot at 389 Belmont Drive (GA-53) in Calhoun is also slated to close by mid May.  The nearly 21,000 square foot freestanding store occupies a more than two acre site in Gordon County.  

Are you surprised by the two Office Depot locations closing in metro Atlanta?  Where do you do the majority of your (home) office shopping needs?  What would you like to see open in place of the two soon-to-be-vacant Office Depot stores?

Please share your thoughts below. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

When Highland Plaza opened in the early 90s the Office Depot space was originally occupied by a Drug Emporium, and Home Depot was a Kmart.

Anonymous said...

I am amazed as many of these locations have lasted this long. Office Depot could morph into a store like the UPS store and likely stick around longer. I just don't see how a large box format store for overpriced office supplies by the hundred would be profitable even in a large city.

S. Gresham said...

Mall @ stonecrest sold to Hallmark venture group out of Florida

Lensman said...

The Highland Plaza location usually has more employees than customers and still has lousy customer service. And yes, way overpriced.

Anonymous said...

Signs are up at the location on 5064 Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain. With Toco Hills and Tucker now closed as well, it puts the 3 closest office supply stores to my house now all closing...

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