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Target Stores closes all Canadian outlets.

Grand Mal

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Less than two years after their much-trumpeted grand incursion into Canada, Target is tucking it's tail between it's legs and closing all 133 outlets, abandoning 17,600 employees.

Target closes all 133 stores in Canada, gets creditor protection - Business - CBC News

'"After a thorough review of our Canadian performance and careful consideration of the implications of all options, we were unable to find a realistic scenario that would get Target Canada to profitability until at least 2021," the U.S. parent company's CEO Brian Cornell said in a release Thursday, explaining the justification for the shutdown.'

They've also applied for and been granted protection from their creditors. This must be one of the most dismal failures by a retail company in recent memory.
 
I was going to say Walmart's $1 Billion dollar failure in Germany still seems to take the prize, but seeing how Target figured out a way to lose $1 Billion in just one year, $1.5 Billion in total, seems to be the best fail yet.
 
I was going to say Walmart's $1 Billion dollar failure in Germany still seems to take the prize, but seeing how Target figured out a way to lose $1 Billion in just one year, $1.5 Billion in total, seems to be the best fail yet.

JC Penny's will probably fail in the next year or so, so you have something bigger to look forward to.
 
It really is hard to break into new markets. In Michigan, Target and Walmart struggle due to the per-eminance of a chain called Meijers, which is essentially a cleaner Wallmart, and the best of the "hypermarket" type stores and one of the creators of the concept. And yet outside of Michigan they are barely known of. They simply cannot break into the markets of states outside of that region and attempts to do so have failed.
 
It really is hard to break into new markets. In Michigan, Target and Walmart struggle due to the per-eminance of a chain called Meijers, which is essentially a cleaner Wallmart, and the best of the "hypermarket" type stores and one of the creators of the concept. And yet outside of Michigan they are barely known of. They simply cannot break into the markets of states outside of that region and attempts to do so have failed.

Walmart isn't doing too well in Canada either and that is apparently because we do not like the one-stop shop kind of stores like Walmart or Target.
 
It really is hard to break into new markets. In Michigan, Target and Walmart struggle due to the per-eminance of a chain called Meijers, which is essentially a cleaner Wallmart, and the best of the "hypermarket" type stores and one of the creators of the concept. And yet outside of Michigan they are barely known of. They simply cannot break into the markets of states outside of that region and attempts to do so have failed.

Often it is down to arrogance and not scouting the market. I have read about Targets problems and they are as clear as day. Open up a 20+ stores at once.. mistake nr. 1. Many of these stores are within driving distance of the US border. Mistake nr 2. And the price you goods higher than the US stores... biggest mistake and mistake nr 3.

Why go to the Canadian target when you can head over the border and pay less?
 
Less than two years after their much-trumpeted grand incursion into Canada, Target is tucking it's tail between it's legs and closing all 133 outlets, abandoning 17,600 employees.

Target closes all 133 stores in Canada, gets creditor protection - Business - CBC News

'"After a thorough review of our Canadian performance and careful consideration of the implications of all options, we were unable to find a realistic scenario that would get Target Canada to profitability until at least 2021," the U.S. parent company's CEO Brian Cornell said in a release Thursday, explaining the justification for the shutdown.'

They've also applied for and been granted protection from their creditors. This must be one of the most dismal failures by a retail company in recent memory.

abandoning 17,600 employees

Interesting point of view.
 
"In a release early Thursday, the U.S. retail chain said it will close all its locations in Canada. There are 133 stores across the country with about 17,600 employees.

The company launched in Canada in March 2013, not quite two years ago."
Seriously? They opened 133 stories before they knew whether or not just ONE store would be sustainable? That is arrogant - and stupid. You can't do that for any business concept. You must see if there's a market. If there isn't, you are then selling to a market that doesn't exist!
 
abandoning 17,600 employees

Interesting point of view.

Maybe a little strong, but they are packing up and going back south, leaving vacant buildings and unemployed people. I know, it's retail and they don't create a single job and most of those people will be needed in the places that get the business they were getting but it all seems kinda, what's the word, imperialistic? Someone here called them 'arrogant'- does that word work?
I wonder if the creditors they're protected from include contractors like janitorial or security companies.
 
Maybe a little strong, but they are packing up and going back south, leaving vacant buildings and unemployed people. I know, it's retail and they don't create a single job and most of those people will be needed in the places that get the business they were getting but it all seems kinda, what's the word, imperialistic? Someone here called them 'arrogant'- does that word work?
I wonder if the creditors they're protected from include contractors like janitorial or security companies.

A lot of people made a lot of money there in Canada from this deal. The builders and sign makers and everybody else that was involved with setting up the stores.

I don't know why they didn't stay, but it was not a total loss for the region.
 
Seriously? They opened 133 stories before they knew whether or not just ONE store would be sustainable? That is arrogant - and stupid. You can't do that for any business concept. You must see if there's a market. If there isn't, you are then selling to a market that doesn't exist!

Amen to that, Auntie. I don't think it is arrogance so much as ignorance. I think they just assumed that Canada is a northern extension of the U.S. Of course it is not. It would have made sense to do some testing as you say.
 
I don't shop much, but I always thought Target was a Canadian company. I guess I was misinformed.
 
Amen to that, Auntie. I don't think it is arrogance so much as ignorance. I think they just assumed that Canada is a northern extension of the U.S. Of course it is not. It would have made sense to do some testing as you say.

My husband explained to me how Target started - they bought out existing department stores and renamed them. Big names and little names. They just slipped into establishments that were already associated with 'these __ items' - instant profit. People needed those stores, liked those stores - and Target just shifted things over time to their own product concepts.

That is very smart - and they should have done exactly that.
 
My husband explained to me how Target started - they bought out existing department stores and renamed them. Big names and little names. They just slipped into establishments that were already associated with 'these __ items' - instant profit. People needed those stores, liked those stores - and Target just shifted things over time to their own product concepts.

That is very smart - and they should have done exactly that.

If I remember correctly, the store chain with which they started was call Venture which was a subsidiary of JC Penny. The Venture stores didn't do well but target has done famously with them. My wife likes to shop for some things at Target. They have a clean setup with wide aisles, good lighting and lots of graphics. Their super stores even have a full grocery supermarket like Walmarr. I view target as an upscale discount department store - a step up from Walmart and KMart.
 
Less than two years after their much-trumpeted grand incursion into Canada, Target is tucking it's tail between it's legs and closing all 133 outlets, abandoning 17,600 employees.

Target closes all 133 stores in Canada, gets creditor protection - Business - CBC News

'"After a thorough review of our Canadian performance and careful consideration of the implications of all options, we were unable to find a realistic scenario that would get Target Canada to profitability until at least 2021," the U.S. parent company's CEO Brian Cornell said in a release Thursday, explaining the justification for the shutdown.'

They've also applied for and been granted protection from their creditors. This must be one of the most dismal failures by a retail company in recent memory.



It was a classic case of arrogance. They came in with a defective business plan, did not allow for exchange rates, and failed to do a market study; they presumed we are "Americans with accents"/

They destroyed good faith by buying K-Mart stores, then fired all their employees and began re-hiring, a cheap way to treat people, and not acceptable in Canada. There were demonstrations and boycotts here.

The stores were 30 to 40% empty most of the time, there was nothing to buy and the prices were higher than Target in Bellingham, Wash. So if people wanted cheap Chinese **** they could drive a half an hour and do so, and buy cheap gas at the same time.

They failed to see the history of Big Box, all inclusive stores here, Canadians are not as accepting as Americans.

And while they are in protection from bankruptcy - time to sell everything - they are facing charges by the British Columbia Ministry of Labour for cheating employees on the buy out.

In short, they did pretty much everything wrong. I can hear the business plan pitch...."Canadians love us, right? They shop in our US stores right? Canada is just America with more snow right? So, what could go wrong?"
 
I was going to say Walmart's $1 Billion dollar failure in Germany still seems to take the prize, but seeing how Target figured out a way to lose $1 Billion in just one year, $1.5 Billion in total, seems to be the best fail yet.

More losses as the 12 year leases have been guaranteed by US Target.
 
Walmart isn't doing too well in Canada either and that is apparently because we do not like the one-stop shop kind of stores like Walmart or Target.

I have to say I dig Wal-Mart.

I live in a small town so I travel into the city to go to WalMart and Cost-co to get cheap crap I need like diapers and what have you.

I actually dislike the Canadian homebrands, Superstore, Sobeys, IGA and Safeway can lick my bollocks, overpriced assholes, that's whta they are.
 
It was a classic case of arrogance. They came in with a defective business plan, did not allow for exchange rates, and failed to do a market study; they presumed we are "Americans with accents"/

They destroyed good faith by buying K-Mart stores, then fired all their employees and began re-hiring, a cheap way to treat people, and not acceptable in Canada. There were demonstrations and boycotts here.

The stores were 30 to 40% empty most of the time, there was nothing to buy and the prices were higher than Target in Bellingham, Wash. So if people wanted cheap Chinese **** they could drive a half an hour and do so, and buy cheap gas at the same time.

They failed to see the history of Big Box, all inclusive stores here, Canadians are not as accepting as Americans.

And while they are in protection from bankruptcy - time to sell everything - they are facing charges by the British Columbia Ministry of Labour for cheating employees on the buy out.

In short, they did pretty much everything wrong. I can hear the business plan pitch...."Canadians love us, right? They shop in our US stores right? Canada is just America with more snow right? So, what could go wrong?"

The biggest problem with Target to me, is they bought out Zellers and didn't really change anything.

Zellers was crap, Target was crap, end of.

The only wise decision they made was not re-opening the diners zellers had and killing half of the 100 people to ever visit their stores.
 
Walmart isn't doing too well in Canada either and that is apparently because we do not like the one-stop shop kind of stores like Walmart or Target.


The City of Vancouver has a ban on "Big Box" stores. Even Home Depot had to seriously down scale their urban stores.

No, we don't like them at all, but we do tolerate the Great Canadian Super Store and of course Canadian Tire, the ultimate one-stop store - get an engine overhaul, camping equipment and a set of new appliances all in one stop.
 
Less than two years after their much-trumpeted grand incursion into Canada, Target is tucking it's tail between it's legs and closing all 133 outlets, abandoning 17,600 employees.

Target closes all 133 stores in Canada, gets creditor protection - Business - CBC News

'"After a thorough review of our Canadian performance and careful consideration of the implications of all options, we were unable to find a realistic scenario that would get Target Canada to profitability until at least 2021," the U.S. parent company's CEO Brian Cornell said in a release Thursday, explaining the justification for the shutdown.'

They've also applied for and been granted protection from their creditors. This must be one of the most dismal failures by a retail company in recent memory.

I'm not sure what the political aspect of this is but from a business perspective, this is going to be a very memorable fiasco.
 
A lot of people made a lot of money there in Canada from this deal. The builders and sign makers and everybody else that was involved with setting up the stores.

I don't know why they didn't stay, but it was not a total loss for the region.

This fellow made a ton of money
Bought all assets for 1.8 B - sold off a chunk amount for about 2.4 B
Tycoon shows his real estate savvy with sale of Hudson

He bought the struggling Hudson’s Bay Co. for about $1.1-billion in 2008 despite warnings that the retailer was a basket case, then sold most of the real estate of HBC’s troubled Zellers chain to U.S. discounter Target Corp. for even more – $1.8-billion.
On Monday, Mr. Baker made another surprise move, announcing HBC’s $650-million deal to sell its flagship downtown Toronto store and adjacent office tower to landlord Cadillac Fairview Corp.
 
The biggest problem with Target to me, is they bought out Zellers and didn't really change anything.

Zellers was crap, Target was crap, end of.

The only wise decision they made was not re-opening the diners zellers had and killing half of the 100 people to ever visit their stores.

Zellers/K-Mart was successful. Canadian Tire is one of the most successful franchises in Canada.

Target Bellingham exists ONLY because of Canadians who want cheap Chinese junk.

As I posted, it had nothing to do with product, location, or anything else. The stores were near empty ALL OF THE TIME. Their prices were HIGHER than the stores around them...as well as their own stores across the line.

Crap sells everywhere, but this American company took a nation for granted.

And THAT is the story.
 
More losses as the 12 year leases have been guaranteed by US Target.

Well that should make the losses go up, I agree. There is a silver lining though for other nations, they will not see the same thing that the US has seen when it comes to large retail chain (really any large organization) dominance over small business enterprise. Which explains well why over 2014 the US saw new business startups at a record low.
 
Just a couple of points here:

1. As Redress noted above, it's very hard to enter into a new and established market and do well immediately. I would note that Canadian Tire, a century old "big box" iconic store here in Canada tried to take that success story into various American States and had their asses handed to them and had to retreat back to Canada. Likewise, the retail giant Walmart tried to bring their Sam's Club warehouse business into Canada a few years back to compete with a very successful Costco which has been in Canada for decades and was originally knows as Price Club. Walmart's Sam's Club outlets got battered by Costco and never caught on while Costco is still booming here.

2. It's been mentioned that big box stores don't do well in Canada - that's nonsense. Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and a lot of others do very well. If the price is right and the products have quality, they will get business and sell. Big box super malls are popping up all over Toronto and the surrounding suburbs and they are doing great.

3. Target was initially very much anticipated here in Canada. A lot of Canadian shoppers knew of Target from their US travel and generally found that Target was higher quality than Walmart with similar pricing. Canadians were badly disappointed with the first impression because the stores were poorly stocked, the prices were generally much higher and in some cases outrageously high, and the buzz died quickly. They tried to reinvent themselves about a year in but the damage had been done.

Target is a poster child for how to do pretty much everything wrong when entering a new market. I wouldn't be surprised if their failure here is used in university business and masters programs for years to come.
 
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Just a couple of points here:

1. As Redress noted above, it's very hard to enter into a new and established market and do well immediately. I would note that Canadian Tire, a century old "big box" iconic store here in Canada tried to take that success story into various American States and had their asses handed to them and had to retreat back to Canada. Likewise, the retail giant Walmart tried to bring their Sam's Club warehouse business into Canada a few years back to compete with a very successful Costco which has been in Canada for decades and was originally knows as Price Club. Walmart's Sam's Club outlets got battered by Costco and never caught on while Costco is still booming here.

2. It's been mentioned that big box stores don't do well in Canada - that's nonsense. Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and a lot of others do very well. If the price is right and the products have quality, they will get business and sell. Big box super malls are popping up all over Toronto and the surrounding suburbs and they are doing great.

3. Target was initially very much anticipated here in Canada. A lot of Canadian shoppers knew of Target from their US travel and generally found that Target was higher quality than Walmart with similar pricing. Canadians were badly disappointed with the first impression because the stores were poorly stocked, the prices were generally much higher and in some cases outrageously high, and the buzz died quickly. They tried to reinvent themselves about a year in but the damage had been done.

Target is a poster child for how to do pretty much everything wrong when entering a new market. I wouldn't be surprised if their failure here is used in university business and masters programs for years to come.
I believe you are right as they are a poster child for poor planning and will be widely studied for what not to do.
Target created a ton of media hype before coming to Canada.
I know people who worked at Zellers and Target when opening was trying to sell of stuff that Zellers could not sell.
Their supply chain was not in place. Hence product was not on the shelf.
Why they did not open slowly, start in large population centers and expand accordingly was imho a major factor in their failing.
 
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