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Office Depot closures won�t affect Medford Office Depot Inc. confirmed Thursday the office products supplier does not plan to close any of its 15 Oregon retail locations, including Medford, as part of the company�s shutdown of poorly performing stores across the country. The Delray Beach, Fla.-based company announced Wednesday it plans to close 70 under performing stores by the end of the first quarter, said Office Depot spokeswoman Lauren Garvey. Office Depot maintains the closures will cost between $280 million and $300 million, which will be taken as a charge in the fourth quarter. It will begin reducing the number of items it stocks in its stores and warehouses and focus more on core business customers. At the same time Office Depot announced the store closings � which amounts to less than 10 percent of its 888 outlets � the company said it will spend more than $100 million in capital and operating expenses this year to improve its stores and the efficiency of its operations. The closings will result in Office Depot�s complete withdrawal from four markets: Cleveland, Columbus, Ohio, Phoenix and Boston. Several stores are also being closed in Southern California. "Although the brick and mortar stores will be gone, we�ll still have a catalog and Internet presence in all of the markets where the stores are closing," Garvey said. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.