Many of you are likely reading this from a makeshift home office, perhaps squeezing in time between virtual meetings with customers or colleagues while you’re kids are learning from home and wondering what school is going to be like when and if they return as the school year starts. You might have recently waited on line getting takeout, standing on the social distancing floor marker as you read the sign noting that masks are required, and if you are venturing into work, you are taking precautions to ensure the safety of yourself, your team and your customers.

This is a part of everyday life now, and from the looks of things, will be the norm for the foreseeable future. And all of it requires products, tools and solutions to help optimize your efficiency and safety in this new world. And Staples is looking to provide them, reinventing its assortment to help us be “remote ready.”

In this podcast, ECRM's Wayne Bennett speaks with Brian Coupland, SVP of Retail Merchandising of Staples about the needs of today's consumers and businesses as they adapt the way they work, learn and communicate in a world of restricted travel, social distancing and sanitization, and how Staples itself is adapting its stores and assortments to accommodate these needs.