Target Canada to close 133 stores in next four to five months

Target Corporation announced today it will close all 133 stores in Canada within the next four to five months, putting 17,600 employees out of work.
The move comes 22 months after Target launched its first international expansion, with great confidence and hope, in the spring of 2013.

Link
t.thestar.com...#/article/business/2015/01/15/breaking-target-to-pull-out-of-canada.html


Sounds like target didn't do their research on the Canadian customer base.

a reply to: Hoosierdaddy71

Nah, it wasn't that.

We Canadians LOVE Target. It was that place like Walmart, but you didn't feel cheap shopping there.

Here's the problem:

1st day, shelves not stocked. By not stocked, I mean, like..half the store was empty.

Prices. We were told they would be cheaper, or at least on par with American's bargains at Target. Didn't happen, prices were higher.

Still dealing with empty shelves, months after launch.

They lied to Canadians. I think they just expected us to get over it. And we voted with out dollars and just stopped going. That was there problem.

~Tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower


How exactly do they expect you to buy anything with the shelves bare? Somebody at target headquarters has got to be out of a job. They said something like 900 million in losses by the time it's all over.

Target in the US isn't cheaper than Walmart, but we pay the extra for the privilege of it not being stocked with the People of Walmart. I also feel like the shoppers there are generally a little more polite even when the store is packed.

The only thing I care about is the 17,600 jobs that are going *poof*.

There's this thing called 'Due Dilligence' that Target forgot all about when they took over all those Zellers stores... that due diligence was making Target a more 'go to' place than Zellers ever was, and Zellers wasn't such a bad place to shop.

They didn't bother, figuring that Canadians would just flock to their store cuz, gee whiz, eh(?), they got that big target on their store front.

I went into a Target a couple of times and bought clothes. No different than Walmart, imho, just less choice.

a reply to: masqua

I dunno. Having bought clothing at both places, I will say that my Target ones do wear better for longer than the ones I got at Wally World.

Still, when I worked at a Target, we priced ourselves to compete against K-Mart not Walmart.

a reply to: Hoosierdaddy71

Oh, they posted already a billion in losses.

The other 900 is on top of that.

Sad really.

~Tenth

a reply to: masqua

The nice thing, is they did put aside 70 million for severance, and have claimed all employees will get 16 weeks worth of it.

~Tenth

originally posted by: tothetenthpower
a reply to: masqua

The nice thing, is they did put aside 70 million for severance, and have claimed all employees will get 16 weeks worth of it.

~Tenth

Damn evil corporations!

Lol

I think HBC saw the writing on the wall...Walmart that is. And Target bit. Zellers only leverage was they weren't an American company. Without that might as well buy cheaper from WM.

originally posted by: tothetenthpower
a reply to: Hoosierdaddy71

Nah, it wasn't that.

We Canadians LOVE Target. It was that place like Walmart, but you didn't feel cheap shopping there.

Here's the problem:

1st day, shelves not stocked. By not stocked, I mean, like..half the store was empty.

Prices. We were told they would be cheaper, or at least on par with American's bargains at Target. Didn't happen, prices were higher.

Still dealing with empty shelves, months after launch.

They lied to Canadians. I think they just expected us to get over it. And we voted with out dollars and just stopped going. That was there problem.

~Tenth

That happened in Korea with Wal-Mart as well.

Also a big ego involved because the ones who really run that Country are the Grandmothers and they ignored what they wanted.

I was there when they shut down many stores and it was a day for smiling. Even the foreigners cheered.

They have E-Mart...Better.

Peace

originally posted by: tothetenthpower
a reply to: Hoosierdaddy71

Nah, it wasn't that.

We Canadians LOVE Target. It was that place like Walmart, but you didn't feel cheap shopping there.

Here's the problem:

1st day, shelves not stocked. By not stocked, I mean, like..half the store was empty.

Prices. We were told they would be cheaper, or at least on par with American's bargains at Target. Didn't happen, prices were higher.

Still dealing with empty shelves, months after launch.

They lied to Canadians. I think they just expected us to get over it. And we voted with out dollars and just stopped going. That was there problem.

~Tenth

Thanks for that information. I'd originally thought this was one of the weirdest stories I'd heard in a long time. I didn't know anything about their stocking and supply problem. For what its worth, we're seeing somewhat the same problem with Walmart in parts of the US. No inventory, no "depth" of inventory and severely reduced choices. That's one of the reasons we stopped shopping at Walmart.

I don't get this problem with stocking. I worked at Zellers 20 years ago. It took 2 days to do a FULL inventory. Stocking a store wouldn't take a week. It seems to me that Target went into this with either arrogance or apathy.

Right from the beginning Target was shown on TV to be charging higher prices than they did on the same items in the US. Not one or two things, but about 1/2 their items. That immediately turned off huge numbers of Canadian shoppers. It was a long climb uphill from there and with so many stores so fast small problems magnified very quickly.

They should have opened 10-20 stores, ironed out the issues then rolled out to so many stores. Of course if they weren't going to go head to head with Walmart they shouldn't have even entered Canada where saving a nickel is praised like an Olympic Gold medal.

Too bad for the jobs and that my kids loved shopping there which was a big break for me. I found the staff really nice but the stores were always weirdly empty of people as well as stock.

I went to the one here just outside of Toronto in Mississauga, Square One shopping center, our biggest mall really, was looking for boots, they only had 7 different pairs, its not that the shelves were empty, they just didn't have much selection really. Its the first major store across from the bus terminal and most people cut thru into the mall.

I always shopped there when it was still Zellars, everybody did, there is a Wallmart there too but its at the other end of the mall, always packed and always a madhouse.

I miss Zellars. They were always a better alternative to Wallmart.

The other problem is that when Target took over all the Zellars, alot of them were predominantly in strip malls, and many of them in undesirable areas with drug and gang problems.,bit of a deterrent to say the least considering their family oriented customer base.

Target Canada is going out of business

Target Canada is closing up shop. Target said Thursday that it will begin winding down its Canadian operations, which include 133 stores that employ 17,600 people.

The Minneapolis-based company said it reviewed its Canadian subsidiary's performance and concluded that it would not be profitable until 2021.

Emphasis added by me.. click link for remainder of article.

Thanks for bringing billions of dollars to our construction sector Target. Now beat it. Thought we were stupid eh?

We are doing a massive Nordstrom on the most expensive retail street in Vancouver. That location is cursed with failure. Fitting tenant.