Target Closing All Canadian Stores
Prince George, B.C. – Target announced this morning they are closing all of their Canadian stores.
“When I joined Target, I promised our team and shareholders that I would take a hard look at our business and operations in an effort to improve our performance and transform our company. 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,” said Brian Cornell, Target Corporation Chairman and CEO.
“With the full support of Target Corporation’s Board of Directors, 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.”
The company currently operates 133 stores in Canada and employs 17,600 workers.
As a result they plan to offer employees at least 16 weeks of compensation including wages and benefits for those employees who are not required for the full wind-down period.
The store will remain open during the liquidation process.
Comments
Not surprising with their prices
buh bye
Going out of business sale at Target? Well, I have finally found a reason to go shop there! Feel sorry for the employees though.
The race to the bottom has claimed target as its victim. Good riddance. Hopefully more stores selling junk at premium prices suffer the same fate.
I like many people was excited when they came to town only to realize on our first visit that the stock levels were appalling ….second visit 18 months later and prices are appalling…no more visits!!!
What’s the world coming to when a store with mostly empty shelves, nothing unique, and uncompetitive pricing can’t survive? For any aspiring retailers out there, Target is a world class example of how not to do it.
I feel bad for the employees that the company bungled things so badly.
On a local level, the Pine Centre management better be working overtime to get someone in Target’s old anchor location. Having such a big retail space go empty for any length of time will be a drag on everyone else.
I thought there prices were high for the quality you got.
Support local. Northern Hardware not Home Depot, Guerney’s House of Vision not Walmart Optical. If you support big box soon all there will be is big box.
I did not expect them to last very long – went there 3 times since they’ve opened; never did find anything that was worth buying. Too bad for the employees.
Never shopped Target but will go check out what’s being offered Maybe there will be a value for the dollar now. TOO BAD SO SAD. Shop where you like while we are Canadian we have choices!
I’m gonna miss their Clearance sales. Probably saved over 500 bucks in total. That was also their biggest problem too. I would never buy anything at full price, always clearance.
As for the Target location in Pine Centre. It will go up for Lease Auction along with the rest of Target’s leases.
If there is a company out there that wants the locations or wants a shot at entering the Canadian market this will be it. The Pine Centre location will not be empty long.
With the impending recession, things are just going to get worse for everyone.
Its too bad we lost Zellers, because I thought they had good value.
What turned me off from Target was their false advertising. The flier would come out with some great deals, but even if you went the first day of the sale they had nothing in stock and weren’t sure if they would be bringing the item in for this store story. After two or three times I just stopped reading their fliers when I planned my shopping. And the price for toys was crazy expensive compared to anywhere else.
Its going to be a big hole at Pine Center. I don’t see anyone filling it unless the Bay moved across town, or Sears across the mall. Best bet for Pine center would be to develop the space for tourism related draws like a IMAX theater, playland type park, maybe a nightclub street type attraction, indoor mini golf, laser tag, or some other type of people draw to the mall.
Pet peeve for me is items with no price tag. I see it all the time and refuse to ever buy an item with no clear price tag, so pass up the purchase often in stores like Target that are bad for this. Superstore is another place that is bad for evasive pricing.
Is Sears next?
Toys R Us would be a good fit.
So much for the build it and they will come theory. I guess looking for the next best deal is more important to people than employment. Haven’t seen nothing yet, brace yourselves while you grasp your “reduced” material items.
Going out of business sales? Junk quality is still junk quality
They were never able to actually stock their stores properly. You can’t sell empty shelves. Their website didn’t help them either. Walmart, Canadian Tire, Futureshop, Home Depot, Home Hardware, they all have websites that let you search for items and see if they are stocked. Target’s Canadian website didn’t let you do that. Target never took the Canadian market seriously, and they got what they put into it.
Sears is next. Sears has been on life support for a long time. Pine Centre is in serious trouble if they lose both big answers in the span of a year or two.
Some more good points above. Poor/non-existent web presence. Generic flyers showing items not available in local stores. It’s hard to believe they lasted two years.
Excellent suggestion Eagleone!
Eagle, I agree. Was in Sportcheck yesterday and most items I looked at had no price tag. Same with Sears. Did I miss something or is this some kind of new business model.
Build an iMac theatre.
*Imax
Good riddance, shop Canadian. I made two trips to Target and wondered why they could be a profitable business. They spent millions rebuilding the Zellers building here in Abbotsford.
Cheers
The service in Target was always very friendly. I loved walking around in there…always very clean and quiet….I will miss it.
IMAX. Yeah, right. Theatres are struggling to stay in business as it is. Are there still people that want to waste $15+ on a substandard movie?
Not to mention the near 20% exchange rate drop since coming to Canada ! Some Americans will be questioning their purchase of Tim Hortons now !
no price tag is similar to job ad with no salary. Same old, same old; pay less and charge more.
There are many business’ around that do not put price tags on products. Chieftain Auto parts, Omineca Source For Sports and most of automotive sales are too scared to actually display pricing. It’s not like there is actually any negotiating room or competitive price matching. only the really competitive markets like electronics does that.
“Are there still people that want to waste $15+ on a substandard movie?”
I think that is teens and disparate singles with no idea what dating is about. You know, the same type of peoples that buy iPhones and Starbucks and drive big tyre 4×4 Pavement Princess’, insist on getting face hardware or other visible body modifications along with the other non-sensible activities.
Don’t forget the IPP detractors to.
And don’t get me started on their RedCard program, which gave 5% off items, but needed to be tied to your bank’s debit card for some unknown reason.
and nothing of value was lost.
There are no guarantees that you will be succeed in any business.
Bed Bath and Beyond or HomeSense would also do well at that location.
Lots of good suggestions here. I think Toys R Us would do well in PG, as well as the outlets that JB suggested. My guess is they could renovate that old Zellers location and put a number of shops in there.
I’m trying to visualize the size of the old Zellers location and based on my recollection, it’s plenty big enough to accommodate that. I’m not sure I can think of anything that could take up that entire space, at least for a market the size of PG.
Be a good place to remodel into a Cabelas
Bring back Woolco
Can someone buy Loki a spell checker? And a side order of grammar lessons too……..
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2015 @ 5:08 PM by EmceeDusty44
Bring back Woolco
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Is that where you bought that 45 you used at the CHP?
Dragon: Is it the same guy? Little older to by cry’in about Woolco.
“Be a good place to remodel into a Cabelas” .. don’t we already have a a few grossly over priced sports store in prince George already.
I bet the space gets remodeled into individual stores, just like they did with a large part of the original Woolco space. The Pine Centre would make a lot more money per square foot that way, as long as they can find tenants of course.
metalman.
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