Thomas the Tank Engine Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Honestly, who didn't see this coming, the stores were hardly ever busy, their Canadian online presence was a joke, prices were a lot higher in most cases than their competition and they basically pulled the wool over Canadian's eyes after telling us that prices would be similar to US prices and they weren't! Chain that's shutting all 133 stores in Canada, leaving 17,600 jobless, misread the market, experts say Target Corp. never understood the Canadian marketplace, according to experts reacting to the announcement on Thursday that the discount retailer will close all 133 of its stores in Canada in the next five months, leaving 17,600 people jobless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vcfan Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 ive been there only 2-3 times to check out their electronics and gaming departments. what i found was pretty shocking. they only had 3 garbage laptops, there were only a few xbox one games in stock,not even joking. and the tv selection was quite poor. the store was pretty empty,and i could hear what people across the store were saying because it was so quiet. i decided to grab a drink from the in store starbucks, and what i got was the most disgusting frappucino i've ever had. i knew immediately they wouldn't last. their website doesn't even show what items they carry and all that information. the most you'll get is the flyer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+primortal Subscriber² Posted January 16, 2015 Subscriber² Share Posted January 16, 2015 Sad it only took 133 stores to find out they we're going to do well.... You'd figure open a few stores in well populated areas and work out the kinks and such and then expand instead of jumping in the deep end of a pool with no water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Eternal Tempest MVC Posted January 16, 2015 MVC Share Posted January 16, 2015 What was there arrogance, any specific examples? Unless it was the too big / jump in all the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
User6060 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 What was there arrogance, any specific examples? Unless it was the good big / jump in. This article doesn't include any of the interviews from employees involved in the set-up, other stories did http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/missing-the-mark-5-reasons-why-target-failed-in-canad/article22459819/ http://gawker.com/why-was-target-canada-such-a-disaster-1579554288 I think the arrogance was trying to do EXACTLY the same thing that worked in the USA at 133 all at once across a huge country. They didn't have their supply chain down right and the stores had no stock of regular items.... and the "official" business plan wouldn't let them stock empty selves with duplicates leaving stores to be bare I think the arrogance was bringing in the US management team before they built any foundation to build upon they never could compete on price and their food section didn't stock things like milk and eggs regularly that would have kept people coming back, women love target bc they have "cute" stuff at a good price and its NOT WALMART but they never had deals here it was not like target in the US Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TruckWEB Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Empty shelves was one of the biggest problem at the Target store here. Lack of choice and price higher than Walmart both collaborated to make them irrelevant. You could do MUCH better at a BestBuy or FutureShop to buy electronic stuff at better cost. Even Walmart has more stuff. +E.Worm Jimmy 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaP Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 What was there arrogance, any specific examples? Unless it was the too big / jump in all the way. Not sure i would call that arrogance but surely incompetence. Target stores were a joke here. Went to the Galleries de la capitale one and it was a big WTF is that moment. Most of the shelves were empty. Almost no cashiers. Few employees to help. There was mostly just place to scan your products and pay by yourself. It was even worse than Zeller and Zeller was totally awful. Target here was DOA. I don't know in which reality they expected to compete with Wall Mart, Costco, ... with such low quality stores. Those guys are smoking some serious stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XerXis Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 17600 people to staff, supply and administer 133 stores...wow, never knew they needed that many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 They've done it here too. They came into the Michigan market like Wal-Mart did, not thinking that our homegrown Meijer hypermarkets would be tough competition. VERY tough, as in you could fit a Target inside a Meijer with lots of room to spare, Meijer has a huge grocery, and good prices & selection. Silly rabbit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WinMacLin Guy Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I have not visited their stores a lot, but my biggest issue with them was their online service (it was also partially the reason why I never visited the stores as I will explain). Target Canada's website is inferior compared to its counterpart in the US. on the Canadian website you are simply presented with catalogs and flyers, they did not bother making a full fledged website which contained a database of all of their products with real-time inventory updates and the ability to order online or reserve for pick up in store. The lack of such a website deterred me from visiting their physical locations because I was unsure that they were carrying the merchandise that I wanted (this was not helped by the fact that they had already built a reputation around not carrying enough stock of popular items in Canada). I feel Target's only reason for coming to Canada was because they saw a lot of cross-border shoppers visiting their stores in the United States and so they believed that their brand had enough power to carry them through when they moved shop over to Canada; I believe that is the basis for their arrogance. As always, I feel sorry for the 17,600 people who are going to become unemployed over this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briangw Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I feel Target's only reason for coming to Canada was because they saw a lot of cross-border shoppers visiting their stores in the United States and so they believed that their brand had enough power to carry them through when they moved shop over to Canada; I believe that is the basis for their arrogance. As always, I feel sorry for the 17,600 people who are going to become unemployed over this. Exactly this. Canadians north of us in Minnesota just came over the border and shopped in our store in Grand Forks, ND. You see them all of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tagerd0g Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I have a Target in my city, but I still haven't visited the store. No loss for me. I may go to the store to see if they have any sales on video games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaP Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 They've done it here too. They came into the Michigan market like Wal-Mart did, not thinking that our homegrown Meijer hypermarkets would be tough competition. VERY tough, as in you could fit a Target inside a Meijer with lots of room to spare, Meijer has a huge grocery, and good prices & selection. Silly rabbit. Here we don't really have local competition for those kind of stores. Only wall mart and cost co. But here people like to go to the local shopping mall where all the stores are and buy their grocery from Metro, their hygiene products from Jean Coutu, their electronics from Best Buy or Future Shop, their furnishing from Ameublement Tanguay and such. To work a store like wall mart needs to have very good price, lot of products, employees to help and local products too (specially for products like cookies and such). Target had none of that. Price were not good. Shelves were empty. There was far less people to help than wall mart and there was no local products anyway i did not see any when i went there but the shelves were so empty i might have missed those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryoken Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Their stores were garbage. Most were former Zellers in non-prime spots. They were small, and because they weren't built for Target, they each had different layouts and products. They had massive supply chain issues, it's one thing to be out of some items and cover up the spot.. they didn't, they had meter's of shelf space left empty, for weeks on end. Online they were a joke, worse than Walmart, which is saying something. Bad prices. Limited selection. End of the day, after stopping there a few times to take a look, I never went back. Why bother? I KNOW I'll get what I want at the other stores, I know it'll be a better price, and it'll normally be in a better location. In short, I saw this coming within their first month. Actually surprised it took this long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Here we don't really have local competition for those kind of stores. Only wall mart and cost co. But here people like to go to the local shopping mall where all the stores are and buy their grocery from Metro, their hygiene products from Jean Coutu, their electronics from Best Buy or Future Shop, their furnishing from Ameublement Tanguay and such. > Indoor malls here are in the trouble with at least one likely to close by summer. Can't compete. It's not unusual for a Meijer to have a Best Buy or furniture store in the same strip mall, and Meijer has basic furniture like TV stands, shelving units etc. and a good entertainment & electronics section. The produce is very good, and the rest of the grocery is huge. Clothes, sports, gardening, toys, pharmacy & HBA etc. Even a bank. They also have a lot of amenities like handicapper electric carts, shopping wheelchairs with a basket etc. 95% of the time Meijer is a one stop shop, which is good in our winters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Zagadka Subscriber² Posted January 16, 2015 Subscriber² Share Posted January 16, 2015 I've worked for Target, and I'm not terribly shocked by this. Their "electronics department" has always been incredibly dismal. The only good Target is for is to go somewhere other than WalMart, but their stock doesn't come close to measuring up in any department, except maybe cheap clothes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryoken Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Source: http://beluscapitaladvisors.com/2014/05/18/14-headshaking-photos-show-target-canada-still-major-problem/ Ya, can't imagine why they didn't meet their sales numbers.. +E.Worm Jimmy 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anibal P Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 That sucks for you all, the Targets in CT and PA have been great, and made it that much easier to completely avoid Walmart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas the Tank Engine Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Anibal P, on 17 Jan 2015 - 07:06, said: That sucks for you all, the Targets in CT and PA have been great, and made it that much easier to completely avoid Walmart Did you actually read any of the articles, then you'd know the american Targets have always been better! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+E.Worm Jimmy Subscriber¹ Posted January 17, 2015 Subscriber¹ Share Posted January 17, 2015 I have shopped in canadian target a few times. even on busy holiday weekends, the stores were less busy then any other store in the mall.. products were missing from the shelves and sold out, and it was shard to find assistance (even thouhg they were niot that busy) extremely bad attempt to compete with walmart here. the pricing was similar, but the choice was not. after a few bad attempts, i stopped going and went to walmart when i needed something mundane for cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I don't use Target in the USA -- who needs them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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