Canada Ping!
Posted on 01/25/2015 7:54:14 PM PST by Lorianne
Target Corp. Chairman and CEO Brian Cornell said Thursday that the company was unable to find a realistic scenario in which the 133-store Target Canada would become profitable before at least 2021. It is Cornell's first major move since becoming CEO in August.
Cornell, who's been tasked with maintaining the retailer's momentum and reclaiming its image as a purveyor of cheap chic fashions and home decor, said it was a difficult decision "but it was the right decision for our company."
"We have determined that it is in the best interest of our business and our shareholders to exit the Canadian market and focus on driving growth and building further momentum in our U.S. business," he added.
Target Corp. currently has 17,600 employees at its 133 Canadian stores. It has 1,801 stores in the U.S.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Isn’t Target one of those stores whose management would rather push liberal social issues than make money?
Piss poor Obama economy doesn’t just affect the U.S.
I work for Target, in Canada, and they are a good company to work for. Their biggest mistake was jumping in with so many stores simultaneously. They might have been all right had they opened up a third of the stores and were more choosy where they opened them.
Many Canadians also complained about the lack of selection, compared with the US. That isn’t Target’s fault, because our bilingual laws makes it more difficult to bring a lot of stuff from the States, because it costs a lot to change the packaging and for many companies it’s ot worth the expense for the money that could be made.
ping
“Your dead to me Fredo(Target).”
It had nothing to do with the economy; Walmart & Canadian Tire are doing just fine. Target’s biggest problem was logistics- they could never keep anything in stock.
Canada Ping!
Announcing their locations more than a year ahead of opening sure didn’t help- Their competitors knew exactly what was coming and had plenty of time to prepare.
Yep. Many of the retailers purposefully allowed the stores around Target locations to lose money just so Target would lose money.
How can you have an entire region be so unprofitable?
If that ratio held for the number of US-based Targets (1801) that would be 238,000+ jobs.
I would think Canada was very “employee-heavy.”
They opened with high prices and never looked back. They had a bad business plan was the Canadian complaint from day one.
StarBucks closed their target franchises the next day. Probably because Target owes taxes here.
They announced they were anti 2A. That’s when I stopped shopping there.
I work for Target, in Canada, and they are a good company to work for. Their biggest mistake was jumping in with so many stores simultaneously. They might have been all right had they opened up a third of the stores and were more choosy where they opened them.
I was surprised to read this, but as you said, that’s a lot of stores to open at once.
I was looking forward to the Target store opening.
I went into one in Hamilton and was pretty disappointed. The atmosphere was very sterile and the merchandise seemed quite cheap and junky. I was hard-pressed to find a few nice gifts. There were very few customers there. Their goods reminded me of another store for home decor called Bouclair. I don’t know if you have that store in the U.S., but it carries a lot of cheap looking merchandise.
I never went into Target again and wondered why they were such a popular store south of the border. I heard that Canadian stores were nothing like American stores, so perhaps it was their lack of good merchandise.
They did, however, have friendly, helpful staff.
Target always seemed anti-Islamic. Not good if you want to succeed in Canada. Smart move to pull out.
the one here in Rochester NY is large, pleasant and very well kept - it’s always packed. I grocery shop there from time to time....wife and daughter buy many clothes there.
Re: Many Canadians also complained about the lack of selection, compared with the US. That isn’t Target’s fault, because our bilingual laws makes it more difficult to bring a lot of stuff from the States, because it costs a lot to change the packaging and for many companies it’s ot worth the expense for the money that could be made.
I had heard from a relative that the Targets in Canada didn’t have the same selection of products but hadn’t realized the reason why.
Sorry about your job. Best wishes for a new job.
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