How did Target possibly screw up the Canadian expansion?

[Ring Shark98]

I feel bad for you dudes from Canada. American Target is pretty tits. You can get anything there. Last time I was there I got 16 white t shirts, some chocolate mint ice cream, a couple DVDs, and a lint roller for like 35 bucks.

At least in my part of town, Target is basically the not as white trash version of Walmart.

Our Walmarts are (typically) not real trashy. I remember we had an American at my workplace and we were discussing Walmart. He said that yeah, our Walmart patrons are good. He said if I lived in the states, I would not be going to Walmart.

 

[LazyFatass]

lol holy shit there's failure and then there's this kind of failure. I still don't understand how they screwed up so badly.

In a nutshell, it was a complete failure of business analysis. They basically did zero market testing before vomiting up 130+ stores across the country.

It was hubris, pure and simple. There's no other way to explain the litany of terrible decisions they made. It's 2015 and you're a department store, where the fuck is your online presence? Target Canada will be studied as a business case in commerce classes for decades.

I really feel bad for the 17,000 people getting laid off. Target employees across the country were checking in online to say that they heard they were getting laid off from the newspaper article. Fucking company didn't even have the decency to tell their own employees that they were getting fired.

 

[CoolB]

The shelves are already empty based on what I've seen.

True but there may be some steals to find yet.

 

[Banchan]

I made a vow to never go back to a Canadian Target but I think I'll break that vow if I can pilfer some super discounted products of the shelves.

I'm going to go this weekend and fill up on some Merona cardigans. All their clothes are 50% off. I bought one around Christmas for $12.50 and I wear it when I want to look fancy and professional. I need to look low income professional for school. Will report back on conditions and stock from my local store.

 

[Banchan]

How hilarious is this image?
Americans, if you are still confused, we saw shelves like this all year round in Target Canada.

 

[Tank_Kam]

I don't understand it.

Thousands of Canadians cross the border JUST to shop at target. All they needed to do was bring their inventory to Canada and they had a massive consumer pool slobbering at the chance to buy from them.

But they purchased Zellers, a Canadian retail chain losing marketshare for years, and just kept selling Zellers products. People expected... and, I have to emphasize, slobbering at the chance to spend money on... Target products at Target prices.

They would have had to actively try to screw it up. Can someone explain to me how it happened?

Target in canada is absolute garbage. I remember I went to two zellers the week before the switch to see if there was any good clearance sales, and then I went back to target when they opened and they were selling the same garbage from zellers at a higher price.

on top of that you can't even purchase shit online.

On a good note though, got a 65inch LED for 500$ there the other day!

 

[LazyFatass]

on top of that you can't even purchase shit online.

It's worse than that. It's not even that you can't buy online; it's that they don't even list their merchandise online. The only things you can do on their website are view the weekly flyer and find tombstone data for stores.

It's absolutely inexcusable for a major retailer to effectively not have an online presence in 2015.

 

[irish_thug]

this was the only real store when I grew up in small town Ontario.

What about Mark's Work Warehouse?

Target is closing all Canadian stores. Experiment failed.

Marks and Canadian Tire are same ownership I think. A lot of the newer stores are attached.

 

[irish_thug]

I wonder what will take the place of all the Target stores that they are closing?

 

[Tank_Kam]

I wonder what will take the place of all the Target stores that they are closing?

probably more wal marts lol

 

[Hyperglide]

lol and now they are gone. Good riddance Target sucks. Sucks almost 18k people will be out of a job though.

 

[Basil**]

I'll give Target credit for one thing: they've got a pretty good toy collection. My wife and I have 6 nieces and nephews so after target came to Canada we've done a lot of our Christmas and birthday shopping for the kids there. We've got another nephew on the way in the spring, and a kid of our own due in June, so the news of their winding up is unfortunate.

 

[My Spot]

Target sucks compared to WM.

 

[ziggs]

The border guards let them back across with US goods?

i live in canada minutes from the border. the way it goes here is the cdn border guards as a courtesy to the locals will let you bring back lets say under $100 (in groceries or what have you) and a pack of smokes and a six pack...i assume its the same for all americans that cross over to canada...lol but once americans see what we pay for milk, cheese, alcohol and tobacco that pretty much kills the idea.

but if they wanted could make you declare and pay taxes on your goods. a canadian has to be in the states for 48hrs then youre allowed to bring back up to $800. (ive gone down and camped out in a campsite to bring back $800 worth of stuff).

canada is expensive as...
where im at there is a postal outlet right across the border that everyone orders stuff to. Shipping to canada adds about another $50 to the order plus you guys have way more variety of things you can order.

 

[ziggs]

target is always empty here...i dont know how they can stay in business

 

[johnyboy]

Walmart in Canada is better

 

[johnyboy]

i live in canada minutes from the border. the way it goes here is the cdn border guards as a courtesy to the locals will let you bring back lets say under $100 (in groceries or what have you) and a pack of smokes and a six pack...i assume its the same for all americans that cross over to canada...lol but once americans see what we pay for milk, cheese, alcohol and tobacco that pretty much kills the idea.

but if they wanted could make you declare and pay taxes on your goods. a canadian has to be in the states for 48hrs then youre allowed to bring back up to $800. (ive gone down and camped out in a campsite to bring back $800 worth of stuff).

canada is expensive as...
where im at there is a postal outlet right across the border that everyone orders stuff to. Shipping to canada adds about another $50 to the order plus you guys have way more variety of things you can order.

We pay for health care out of our taxes hence why smokes and booze cost so much. Had some friends go to the states and they said dip was only a few bucks compared to like 30 here

 

[alphaomegaman]

Marks and Canadian Tire are same ownership I think. A lot of the newer stores are attached.

and they own the Forzani Group...

 

[ziggs]

We pay for health care out of our taxes hence why smokes and booze cost so much. Had some friends go to the states and they said dip was only a few bucks compared to like 30 here

i dont smoke or dip but if i did haha. all my american cousins cant believe the price of smokes here when they visit.

when i go down i make sure to have an empty tank and fill up...i think after dollar conversion it works out to about 30cents/liter cheaper.

The young guns around here have what they call the jerry can scam...where you go down with a jerry can labelled 50:1 and fill it with 3 litres of hard liquor cheap as...then hold your breathe at the border. (haha i recently learned about everclear from them). Then at the party the jerry can is just passed around and it looks like youre drinking straight gas.

I dont drink hard shit but it is alot cheaper...beer not so much...maybe a couple bucks cheaper for a six pack but they have some pretty sweet micro breweries.

The steretype of american beer being shite is all lies

 

[Banchan]

They didn't do the required market research and they went in unprepared from a distribution standpoint.

Target isn't as well insulated in terms of self suffiency with distribution as Walmart. Walmart always had an edge. Walmart has their own brand in everything from food to clothing. If they can't find a manufacturer to bring something in at swindler prices, they find someone who will make their own version and sell it under their own brand. Target Canada had to rely on Canadian distribution networks to fill their inventory and some of these distributors failed hard to deliver. Using a third party wholesale to buy significant amounts of their inventory also drove up prices.

Target Canada should have either started small, they had 133 stores in less than 2 years while Marshalls in comparison had 34 in 4 years or waited until they had more control over their inventory before expanding. This would have given them better forsight and control over their inventory and kept prices low and more competitive.

Hindsight 20/20. 6 billion dollars later.