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He bought the struggling Hudson’s Bay Co. for about $1.1-billion in 2008 despite warnings that the retailer was a basket case, then sold most of the real estate of HBC’s troubled Zellers chain to U.S. discounter Target Corp. for even more – $1.8-billion.
On Monday, Mr. Baker made another surprise move, announcing HBC’s $650-million deal to sell its flagship downtown Toronto store and adjacent office tower to landlord Cadillac Fairview Corp.

Originally Posted by Fenton

Hillary is the only defense I or anyone else needs.

Originally Posted by Erod

The damage to the black community from all this will be devastating.Not only on public perception and reputation, but cops simply won't want to police these neighborhoods anymore.

Re: Target Stores closes all Canadian outlets.

The biggest problem with Target to me, is they bought out Zellers and didn't really change anything.

Zellers was crap, Target was crap, end of.

The only wise decision they made was not re-opening the diners zellers had and killing half of the 100 people to ever visit their stores.

Zellers/K-Mart was successful. Canadian Tire is one of the most successful franchises in Canada.

Target Bellingham exists ONLY because of Canadians who want cheap Chinese junk.

As I posted, it had nothing to do with product, location, or anything else. The stores were near empty ALL OF THE TIME. Their prices were HIGHER than the stores around them...as well as their own stores across the line.

Crap sells everywhere, but this American company took a nation for granted.

And THAT is the story.

Americans can always be counted on doing the right thing...after they have tried everything else." Winston Churchill.

Re: Target Stores closes all Canadian outlets.

Originally Posted by JANFU

More losses as the 12 year leases have been guaranteed by US Target.

Well that should make the losses go up, I agree. There is a silver lining though for other nations, they will not see the same thing that the US has seen when it comes to large retail chain (really any large organization) dominance over small business enterprise. Which explains well why over 2014 the US saw new business startups at a record low.

"Every time something really bad happens, people cry out for safety, and the government answers by taking rights away from good people." - Penn Jillette.

Re: Target Stores closes all Canadian outlets.

Just a couple of points here:

1. As Redress noted above, it's very hard to enter into a new and established market and do well immediately. I would note that Canadian Tire, a century old "big box" iconic store here in Canada tried to take that success story into various American States and had their asses handed to them and had to retreat back to Canada. Likewise, the retail giant Walmart tried to bring their Sam's Club warehouse business into Canada a few years back to compete with a very successful Costco which has been in Canada for decades and was originally knows as Price Club. Walmart's Sam's Club outlets got battered by Costco and never caught on while Costco is still booming here.

2. It's been mentioned that big box stores don't do well in Canada - that's nonsense. Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and a lot of others do very well. If the price is right and the products have quality, they will get business and sell. Big box super malls are popping up all over Toronto and the surrounding suburbs and they are doing great.

3. Target was initially very much anticipated here in Canada. A lot of Canadian shoppers knew of Target from their US travel and generally found that Target was higher quality than Walmart with similar pricing. Canadians were badly disappointed with the first impression because the stores were poorly stocked, the prices were generally much higher and in some cases outrageously high, and the buzz died quickly. They tried to reinvent themselves about a year in but the damage had been done.

Target is a poster child for how to do pretty much everything wrong when entering a new market. I wouldn't be surprised if their failure here is used in university business and masters programs for years to come.

Last edited by CanadaJohn; 01-19-15 at 12:42 PM.

"Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views." William F. Buckley Jr.

Re: Target Stores closes all Canadian outlets.

Originally Posted by CanadaJohn

Just a couple of points here:

1. As Redress noted above, it's very hard to enter into a new and established market and do well immediately. I would note that Canadian Tire, a century old "big box" iconic store here in Canada tried to take that success story into various American States and had their asses handed to them and had to retreat back to Canada. Likewise, the retail giant Walmart tried to bring their Sam's Club warehouse business into Canada a few years back to compete with a very successful Costco which has been in Canada for decades and was originally knows as Price Club. Walmart's Sam's Club outlets got battered by Costco and never caught on while Costco is still booming here.

2. It's been mentioned that big box stores don't do well in Canada - that's nonsense. Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and a lot of others do very well. If the price is right and the products have quality, they will get business and sell. Big box super malls are popping up all over Toronto and the surrounding suburbs and they are doing great.

3. Target was initially very much anticipated here in Canada. A lot of Canadian shoppers knew of Target from their US travel and generally found that Target was higher quality than Walmart with similar pricing. Canadians were badly disappointed with the first impression because the stores were poorly stocked, the prices were generally much higher and in some cases outrageously high, and the buzz died quickly. They tried to reinvent themselves about a year in but the damage had been done.

Target is a poster child for how to do pretty much everything wrong when entering a new market. I wouldn't be surprised if their failure here is used in university business and masters programs for years to come.

I believe you are right as they are a poster child for poor planning and will be widely studied for what not to do.
Target created a ton of media hype before coming to Canada.
I know people who worked at Zellers and Target when opening was trying to sell of stuff that Zellers could not sell.
Their supply chain was not in place. Hence product was not on the shelf.
Why they did not open slowly, start in large population centers and expand accordingly was imho a major factor in their failing.

Originally Posted by Fenton

Hillary is the only defense I or anyone else needs.

Originally Posted by Erod

The damage to the black community from all this will be devastating.Not only on public perception and reputation, but cops simply won't want to police these neighborhoods anymore.