Staples Shareholders Balk at Executives’ Bonus Proposal

Staples shareholders have rejected a proposal to reward the company's top executives with six-digit cash bonuses even as the office supplies chain underperforms. At its annual meeting Monday night, 54% of votes were in opposition to a package which would have divided $500,000 among four top executives. This one-time bonus would have been in lieu of performance-based bonuses not rewarded last fiscal year due to none of the executives meeting qualifying goals. Staples has been wrestling with a large retail footprint as customers shirk bricks-and-mortar stores for online shopping. The company expects to close 225 locations in North America by the end of 2015.