Thursday, January 15, 2015

Target Canada Closing - My Thoughts

I woke up this morning to the news that Target was closing all of its stores in Canada.

http://globalnews.ca/…/target-plans-to-discontinue-canadia…/

This is not a surprise. When it was first announced that Target would be coming to Canada I was extremely excited. Shopping at the Target stores in the US is always a highlight of trips down there. Why you ask? Because they have a lot of good products for a reasonable price.

In Canada, the Target stores did not open huge SuperTargets like in the US. They remodeled old Zellers stores which were in shopping mall locations. Zellers was a nasty store as far as I am concerned...they were always messy and disorganized. I was glad to see them go.

I visited my local Target the week it opened. I was immediately disappointed. The best thing about US Target is a line of ladies sleepwear that I prefer. Great price and super comfortable. Of course they were not available in Canada. I still had to shop in the US for them. I always bought my Tazo Awake tea at US Target as it averaged around $3 a box. At the time it was $8 in Canada and hard to find. The Canadian Target had it priced higher than Walmart but lower than Save On Foods. The shelves were bare in spots. Expected items had not arrived on time. My infrequent visits to Target after that were also disappointing.

Last year I won a Target giftcard at my company Christmas party. I didn't like the news I was hearing about Target so I visited several times trying to find something to buy with it that would be a nice treat. I couldn't find anything. Then my popcorn popper died so I replaced it using my Target gift card. It was more expensive there than at Walmart but I knew that I needed to use that giftcard up. I'm glad I did.

Target...you let us down. You didn't dazzle us. You didn't replace Canadian Tire, the Real Canadian Superstore or Walmart great prices. You did not find a place in our hearts. We wish it could have worked out. I feel bad for all the people losing their jobs. That is a major disgrace.

This is what happens when market research is flawed. Did you ever try to figure out why Canadians flock to your US stores? Did you ever really try to get to know us?  Why did you start out so big? This will be studied for years and go down in history as a huge retail disaster.

Target, I will reiterate, why did you let us down?

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