Target will be closing all 133 Canadian stores

I don't live in Canada, so this doesn't directly affect me, but wow, that sucks.

wow, more than 17,000 people will lose their jobs.. that's insane. i feel bad for them. hopefully they'll all get their feet back under them in short order.

As a condition of the pull-out, it will be a liquidation. Sadly judging on the couple locations I've been in lately, as they had already started clearing older stock a couple weeks ago, i doubt they will have much left in their supply chain for us to take advantage of.

Not unexpected really, but disappointing nonetheless.

this supremely sucks. they were a good resource. though id be lying if i said i wasnt looking forward to the going out of business sale...

To the editor of this so called sad story, being Canadian I can truly say, with no hesitation, Target stores here in Canada sucked!
I, for one, could care less for their so-called Target Exclusives as Toys R Us provided the figures adequately.
When walking through their isles there was never anything new or interesting.
If you walked through their store during Christmas hours it was bleak with hardly anyone in the store.
It's a shame the jobs will be lost but as a transformers fan, we're truly not missing much.
Someone says they were a great resource? I have to completely disagree.
If Walmart or toys r us did not have the item they stocked up within a couple of days. Target on the other hand would have the item but would be for $3-$5 more. I'm sorry but I can wait to save that money and put it towards groceries.
With Target their stock was so out dated and ridiculously priced I'd use their store to pick up baby clothes for my kid. (That aspect I will miss - great selection for baby merchandise)

Did we miss much.....yes for the job market but not for its merchandise.

shajaki wrote:id be lying if i said i wasnt looking forward to the going out of business sale...

Only works if they stuff to sell.

They may have a few things show up in the next week or two but after that all bets are off.

The nature of the papers they filed for creditor protection basically says if they haven't signed to receive the product in one of their facilities from Hasbro already, that any open orders have been immediately cancelled. That would include anything pending that has not arrived in a Target facility.

Anything from Hasbro manufactured but not delivered will be sent to Hasbro, and anything awaiting production will be reassigned or cancelled.

Based on this any products that have left the factory for our shores are more likely to end up at a Winners, TRU or Wal-Mart then end up on a Target shelf.

Target has been a steady disappointment since the initial novelty of having them in Canada wore off. There were a few items I found for cheaper than other retailers, and would be lying if I said I didn't take advantage of that brilliantly priced Silver Prime/Grimlock pack, but the overall experience of shopping at Target was not that great. I'm sad so many are losing jobs, that is terrible, but we're not losing a great retail outlet.

i wonder what this means for target USA? they lost a lot of money coming to canada only to walk away from it all... would there be any kind of ripple effect?

I don't mean to sound rude, I love target and would hate for it to just go away like that, not to mention the job lose, but hopefully this means Target will be able to open up here in my town. We just lost Kmart over the summer and rumors have been spreading like wildfire for the last couple years that if Kmart ever closed Target would be taking over the building.

Interesting commentary on the Target pull-out:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/01/15/target_closing_in_canada_these_pictures_show_why_it_failed.html

shajaki wrote:i wonder what this means for target USA? they lost a lot of money coming to canada only to walk away from it all... would there be any kind of ripple effect?

I dont think so, their stock price just rose 3 points today due to the news that they would leave Canada.

william-james88 wrote:

shajaki wrote:i wonder what this means for target USA? they lost a lot of money coming to canada only to walk away from it all... would there be any kind of ripple effect?

I dont think so, their stock price just rose 3 points today due to the news that they would leave Canada.

Yea... Target Corporate is much healthier financially now that Target Canada is dunzo.

It actually might have a positive ripple effect in the US... MORE TOYS FOR US!!!

I'm in Ohio, and there are any exclusives or anything that some of our buddies to the north might want, drop me a line and I'll do what I can for you-

Just heard about this on the radio this morning. I'm with you guys, Target Canada was kind of a disappointment. It was so boring in the stores from every aspect, and I think they had trouble competing with Walmart supercenters, which offers produce.
If you guys want to know a little more of the story, it's pretty neat. Canadian stores in general have less product, later, and more expensive. I remember that crossing the border was always cool because US stores like Target were there. Now for years there has been a store analogous to Target in Canada, called Zellers. I have many fond memories of Zellers, as it often had sales, and carried older stock sometimes, which allowed me to hesitate on decisions. Not to mention the fact that they carried Target exclusive products in Canada. However the stores were a mess. They were among the most rough looking stores I've ever been in. I suspect that poor management is why they were ripe for a buyout on Target's part.
Nowadays, Targets were clean stores that had comparable products to everywhere else for a small percentage more. For whatever reason they were often empty relative to places like Walmart. My personal opinion, I preferred Zellers. I can't remember buying anything from an advertised sale in Target, because they never had them (for Transformers that is). So basically I lost a major source of sales for a poor-man's Walmart. All I hope at this point is that some chain consistently picks up their TF exclusives

Terrible. I wonder how this will affect the US stores. The Target near me tendso have a better seletn TFs than the Toys R Us across the street. My condolences to the men and women who will soon be without employment. I hope you can find fulfilling work soon.

mesh wrote:To the editor of this so called sad story, being Canadian I can truly say, with no hesitation, Target stores here in Canada sucked!
I, for one, could care less for their so-called Target Exclusives as Toys R Us provided the figures adequately.
When walking through their isles there was never anything new or interesting.
If you walked through their store during Christmas hours it was bleak with hardly anyone in the store.
It's a shame the jobs will be lost but as a transformers fan, we're truly not missing much.
Someone says they were a great resource? I have to completely disagree.
If Walmart or toys r us did not have the item they stocked up within a couple of days. Target on the other hand would have the item but would be for $3-$5 more. I'm sorry but I can wait to save that money and put it towards groceries.
With Target their stock was so out dated and ridiculously priced I'd use their store to pick up baby clothes for my kid. (That aspect I will miss - great selection for baby merchandise)

Did we miss much.....yes for the job market but not for its merchandise.

Totally agree. Target stores around here were often mostly empty no matter when you went there, and the selection and prices left a LOT to be desired. But it is definitely a "sad" story as a lot of people are now out of work and that sucks even more.

megatronus wrote:Interesting commentary on the Target pull-out:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/01/15/target_closing_in_canada_these_pictures_show_why_it_failed.html

That's pretty much it, right there. The stores were always barren. Like they'd get a shipment of stock, and for the next three months or more, that was what they had. As it sold out, they'd have less and less, with nothing more coming in to supplement what was sold. Numbers were not down because they couldn't sell things, numbers were down because after getting their initial stock, they had nothing left to sell in the months following. This is true of every Target I've visited out here which, let's be honest, is only like... five... but for such a problem to be consistent between five separate stores within a chain?

I wanted Target to do well, even if we do have other stores that carry their exclusive toys here in Canada, but I think whoever was calling the shots on this project really dropped the ball, and now a buncha people are gonna be out of work as a result.

Samsonator wrote:

megatronus wrote:Interesting commentary on the Target pull-out:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/01/15/target_closing_in_canada_these_pictures_show_why_it_failed.html

That's pretty much it, right there. The stores were always barren. Like they'd get a shipment of stock, and for the next three months or more, that was what they had. As it sold out, they'd have less and less, with nothing more coming in to supplement what was sold. Numbers were not down because they couldn't sell things, numbers were down because after getting their initial stock, they had nothing left to sell in the months following. This is true of every Target I've visited out here which, let's be honest, is only like... five... but for such a problem to be consistent between five separate stores within a chain?

I wanted Target to do well, even if we do have other stores that carry their exclusive toys here in Canada, but I think whoever was calling the shots on this project really dropped the ball, and now a buncha people are gonna be out of work as a result.

Do we still?

william-james88 wrote:

Samsonator wrote:I wanted Target to do well, even if we do have other stores that carry their exclusive toys here in Canada, but I think whoever was calling the shots on this project really dropped the ball, and now a buncha people are gonna be out of work as a result.

Do we still?

I'd love to know which store these's are. The only place around here beyond resellers (Ages 3 and Up, Metropolis C&G, Toy Traders) I know I have ever seen Target exclusive tags beyond Target, is at the Zellers they replaced.

I have, on occasion, found cases of Target Exclusive toys at smaller, lesser known chains. For example, "Fields" in the town I used to live in, back in DoTM I was shocked to find HA Leadfoot, complete with Target logos all over him. I thought that might change when Target came here, but according to friends back home, they saw at least the Predacons Rising stuff which was after Target Canada opened it's doors. They are out there, but they are definitely hard to find. Getting them from Target was definitely an easier solution, at least when Target had any stock, but as far as I know, they'll make it into the country with or without the store.

Fields? Interesting. now this is just a hypothesis but....

Fields was formerly a division of HBC that has been sold off a while ago but still maintained some connections to assist in some communities. It's highly likely that due to those connections that they were able to take advantage of agreements already in place during the shut down, or had the Bay push items in the supply chain already agreed to purchase over their way once the majority of Zellers closed, rather than... oh... I don't know..... Reopening the toy departments in actual Bay locations?

But I digress. I doubt Fields will be a very solid option moving forward.

CRAP! You're in Surrey? We could be hitting the same shops.

fields is still a store?

Editor wrote:CRAP! You're in Surrey? We could be hitting the same shops.

After your mention of A3U, Toy Traders and Metropolis, I assure you we are indeed hitting the same shops.

I went to Target today to look at all the empty shelves (not a new concept for them) and thought of just taking pictures to mark an end to the experiment. The big liquidations will begin this thursday.

We will start with the Dilapidated Transformers shelf

ill be hittin up the electronics for sure.

Clearance starts today.

I'm not too worried as my local store sold thru any TF's I cared about after New Years, but hopefully there are a few stores with stuff you are looking for.

Editor wrote:Clearance starts today.

I'm not too worried as my local store sold thru any TF's I cared about after New Years, but hopefully there are a few stores with stuff you are looking for.

You should still take a look. I went today and found the recent generations combiner wars Legends there. WTF?! And they were all 20% off.

Never said I wasn't going to look...

I'll hit my local on the way home, but i'll be lucky to get there before 7PM.

Wal-Mart plans 340 million dollar expansion in Canada!

The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, February 11, 2015 6:29AM EST
Last Updated Wednesday, February 11, 2015 11:17AM EST
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -

Wal-Mart Canada says it plans to expand seven stores and open two new ones this fiscal year.
The retailer will also convert 20 of its stores into supercentres by adding a grocery section.
Wal-Mart Canada estimates the cost at $230 million, with an additional investment of $75 million to expand its distribution network and $35 million on on e-commerce initiatives.

Wal-Mart Canada says it plans to complete another 29 supercentre projects, an expansion that is expected to generate about 3,700 construction jobs, 1,000 store jobs and 300 distribution centre jobs across Canada.
The news comes after U.S.-based retailer Target announced it is pulling out of Canada and will be shutting down all 133 of its Canadian stores.
Target acquired the leases from retailer Zellers back in 2010 and has said it will work with an advisor to sell them.
The expansion will bring Wal-Mart Canada's store count to 396 by the end of January, 2016, consisting of 309 supercentres and 87 discount stores.

What I'm unclear about, is whether or not they'll be snatching up the brand new (and newly abandoned) Target stores?

You would kind of expect that even if they had these plans already developed prior to Targets announcement that they are now looking at the assets Target is leaving behind and analyzing any options available near the places they plan to open.

After all the warehouse/distribution centres if located in good spots could save them time and energy instead of building from scratch.

shajaki wrote:What I'm unclear about, is whether or not they'll be snatching up the brand new (and newly abandoned) Target stores?

I suspect they won't be snatching up the Target stores - one of Target's issues was they simply rented and/or conformed to existing properties and retail spaces rather than investing in their own real estate. I doubt Wal-Mart will be making the same mistake.

megatronus wrote:

shajaki wrote:What I'm unclear about, is whether or not they'll be snatching up the brand new (and newly abandoned) Target stores?

I suspect they won't be snatching up the Target stores - one of Target's issues was they simply rented and/or conformed to existing properties and retail spaces rather than investing in their own real estate. I doubt Wal-Mart will be making the same mistake.

thanks!
i had no idea. to me, it seems like such a waste... all those newly renovated stores, who wouldnt want to snatch them up? but youre totally right. walmart is an owner, not a renter. hell, they rent walmart space to others!

i have an (ex-brother-in-law) who's a walmart manager. they buy a giant-ass lot, and not only rent out spots within the store, but minimalls surrounding walmart pay rent (cause walmart obviously owns em). and with that, they essentially have all their taxes paid off every year.

shajaki wrote:

megatronus wrote:

shajaki wrote:What I'm unclear about, is whether or not they'll be snatching up the brand new (and newly abandoned) Target stores?

I suspect they won't be snatching up the Target stores - one of Target's issues was they simply rented and/or conformed to existing properties and retail spaces rather than investing in their own real estate. I doubt Wal-Mart will be making the same mistake.

thanks!
i had no idea. to me, it seems like such a waste... all those newly renovated stores, who wouldnt want to snatch them up? but youre totally right. walmart is an owner, not a renter. hell, they rent walmart space to others!

i have an (ex-brother-in-law) who's a walmart manager. they buy a giant-ass lot, and not only rent out spots within the store, but minimalls surrounding walmart pay rent (cause walmart obviously owns em). and with that, they essentially have all their taxes paid off every year.

You got it!

Also, intriguing...

From a customer POV their closing sucks all kind of S### but I have to admit I am looking forward to seeing how things shake down for all the Target locations.

Lets face it there is a very small list of companies in play that could seriously consider taking over complete store footprints:
Wal-Mart
Loblaws/Superstore/Joe Fresh
Canadian Tire Especially well placed urban locations for their newer urban concept stores
IKEA more possible then some may believe, They have been looking at expanding with "smaller" stores in communities they don't have locations. Some smaller Targets may fit their needs
Best Buy/Future Shop while it could be appealing to them to open one of each store in places they haven't locations, (and yes it is part of their corporate strategy to put one of each close to each other to be their own competition) it's unlikely as they even the malls with both they try to put a small distance between them
Simons They seems to be in an expanding mood
HBC Highly unlikely
Sears yhea right
Leon's/The Brick They've taken over large footprints before.
Cabalas/Bass Pro could work in the right communities

A bunch will undoubtedly be completely redeveloped to sell space in malls to smaller tenants, or possibly as seen at a few malls around here be replaced by an office or condo tower.

There is a rumour kicking around my Strata, that the owner of the adjoining property (currently a Toys'r'Us & Dollarama) may be looking to build a tower complex, if this is real, I hope that TRU will be looking at part of the space Target is vacating.

If anyone hears what's happening with the Targets in their neck of the woods, post it here. If only because I'll find it interesting.

william-james88 wrote:I went to Target today to look at all the empty shelves (not a new concept for them) and thought of just taking pictures to mark an end to the experiment. The big liquidations will begin this thursday.

We will start with the Dilapidated Transformers shelf

Doesn't look much different than the still very much open American Targets in my area. Actually that's how most stores' around here TF sections have looked since Christmas.

william-james88 wrote:

I can't get over how there's a BH Soundwave (who's long since outstayed his welcome) alongside Tailgate (who've I've never seen in my area) alongside all that empty space, and this being only a few weeks ago. Very surreal.

Optimum Supreme wrote:Doesn't look much different than the still very much open American Targets in my area. Actually that's how most stores' around here TF sections have looked since Christmas.

Yeah, my Target's been RiD - AoE junk - empty spot for CW for a while now.
But as far as I can tell, the rest of it doesn't appear to be in a perpetual state of going out of business.

Well...i'm bummed about them folding. Shopping there sucked but i got transformers there generally at the same time the waves were released in the states.

As for saying how wonderfull Toys are Us is and Walmart in regards to delivering the waves on time. ALL the toys r us and walmart stores in my town and beyond are still selling Beast Hunters and AOE stuff and havent restocked the shelves since summer. It's abysmal.

I'm getting really tired at having to order figures online paying American prices with a really crappy Canadian dollar and massively high shipping and handleing.


Canada or at least my hometown SUCKS so bad at keeping up with the latest releases it was refreshing for a store like Target that kept up with the waves to come to my town.

MGrotusque wrote:Well...i'm bummed about them folding. Shopping there sucked but i got transformers there generally at the same time the waves were released in the states.

As for saying how wonderfull Toys are Us is and Walmart in regards to delivering the waves on time. ALL the toys r us and walmart stores in my town and beyond are still selling Beast Hunters and AOE stuff and havent restocked the shelves since summer. It's abysmal.

I'm getting really tired at having to order figures online paying American prices with a really crappy Canadian dollar and massively high shipping and handleing.


Canada or at least my hometown SUCKS so bad at keeping up with the latest releases it was refreshing for a store like Target that kept up with the waves to come to my town.

Yeah, its the same all around. But at least TRU.com has stuff eventually. Like right now, it has [url-http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=57276806]Silverbolt[/url], and you'd get him shipped for free, so its like getting him in a store, no need for craz exchange rates.

Platinum Starscreamis also on clearance for those who care.

shajaki wrote:i wonder what this means for target USA? they lost a lot of money coming to Canada only to walk away from it all... would there be any kind of ripple effect?

Well in the USA state of Minnesota. "The birthplace of Target." We had to lay off a lot of managers in the corporate offices and lay off a lot of retail store staff as well. These lay offs are the human medical surgery equivalent of amputating some limbs in order to save a person's life. Our Canadian adventure had hurt us more the helped us.

Towline wrote:

shajaki wrote:i wonder what this means for target USA? they lost a lot of money coming to Canada only to walk away from it all... would there be any kind of ripple effect?

Well in the USA state of Minnesota. "The birthplace of Target." We had to lay off a lot of managers in the corporate offices and lay off a lot of retail store staff as well. These lay offs are the human medical surgery equivalent of amputating some limbs in order to save a person's life. Our Canadian adventure had hurt us more the helped us.

I'm guessing those layoffs include the people who had the brilliant idea of charging more for the same products sold in the states.

Sarcasm aside, this hurt a lot of people and its sad how it all turned out due to bad planning.

william-james88 wrote:

Towline wrote:

shajaki wrote:i wonder what this means for target USA? they lost a lot of money coming to Canada only to walk away from it all... would there be any kind of ripple effect?

Well in the USA state of Minnesota. "The birthplace of Target." We had to lay off a lot of managers in the corporate offices and lay off a lot of retail store staff as well. These lay offs are the human medical surgery equivalent of amputating some limbs in order to save a person's life. Our Canadian adventure had hurt us more the helped us.

I'm guessing those layoffs include the people who had the brilliant idea of charging more for the same products sold in the states.

Sarcasm aside, this hurt a lot of people and its sad how it all turned out due to bad planning.

What I don't get, is why abandon so soon? No business is a smashing success in it's first year, couldn't a little more time have helped?

shajaki wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Towline wrote:

shajaki wrote:i wonder what this means for target USA? they lost a lot of money coming to Canada only to walk away from it all... would there be any kind of ripple effect?

Well in the USA state of Minnesota. "The birthplace of Target." We had to lay off a lot of managers in the corporate offices and lay off a lot of retail store staff as well. These lay offs are the human medical surgery equivalent of amputating some limbs in order to save a person's life. Our Canadian adventure had hurt us more the helped us.

I'm guessing those layoffs include the people who had the brilliant idea of charging more for the same products sold in the states.

Sarcasm aside, this hurt a lot of people and its sad how it all turned out due to bad planning.

What I don't get, is why abandon so soon? No business is a smashing success in it's first year, couldn't a little more time have helped?

I looked it up. It turns out that earning were based on Target making profit in Canada within the first year. While that is insane on its own, the profit was based on them charging canadians more for the same products they were selling in the states. That obviously bakfired, causing them to have to lower the price and get lower profit margins. And then our dollar went down and since they are primarily an amaerican corporation, that also cut into their predictions of earnings in american dollars. Their new predicted earnings were far less than expected and dropped the stock price down, making the corporation worth a lot less and thus unable to secure more funds from banks than they could have before. So pretty much staying in canada any longer was constantly putting a halt to plans to expand in the states where they knew the market better. They werent going to wait for their canadian expansion to do better while sacrificing any growth in the states since they couldnt borrow as much.

The increasing pressure from the board members made them abandon canadian operations which made their stock go up, regaining the value ofthe company and their borrowing opportunity for any statewise operations.

They just couldnt sustain the losses in canada.

I just realized I am probably writing this to someone who is probably far more savy than me in the finance sector so sorry if I went overboard and wrote stuff you probably already knew.

Deep down they were doomed to fail due to their poor logic in expansion. Canada is wealthier per capita than the states and its not because we buy overpriced products we can just buy at Walmart instead.

I am actually still quite sad since I liked their toy aisle and I really liked having another place that had exclusives. Of the 3 retailers with exclusives for AOE, only Target had all of theirs in Quebec. And I think Canada wide, we never got the Walmart ones with the Beast Wars and Energon figures.

Yea, raising prices on Canada inventory was a lame move. They're a discount chain, and are extremely competitive in the US in terms of price when compared to Wal-Mart here. Plus, they've cultivated an excellent shopping/branding experience.

They threw that all out the window with the Canadian expansion. No supply chain, no focus on the shopping experience...

Still, they might have turned it around if not for the focus on short term profits/earnings.

The sad part is these new US layoffs, may be less due to the cost of expanding into Canada, as much as the large penalties they are are incurring to pull out.

Again all this could have been avoided had:
a) they hired the right management.
b) accepted the offer from HBC to share their distribution information, rather than trying to build their own from scratch.
c) had the balls bite the bullet, fix the errors that were self-evident, listen to their location managers, and ride out the storm.

I don't have a lot of investments, but I know enough to play the long game. Yes, 5 years is a long turn for profitability, but I refuse to see how this move will do anything but give their shareholders short term relief.

Editor wrote:
I don't have a lot of investments, but I know enough to play the long game. Yes, 5 years is a long turn for profitability, but I refuse to see how this move will do anything but give their shareholders short term relief.

Oh, this is ALL about short term relief. But though they might not recuperate anytime soon (or ever), the stock could have plummetted due to momentum if they would have stayed (with the same dumb mentality, of course).

The conservative estimation had them in the black in 2021. Maybe sooner maybe later, but it's the fact they just gave up.

It would be one thing if like Walmart they had come in, set stuff up, failed and left, but that they killed Zellers in their entry and became their defacto replacement, ment that isn't just a 2 year up and down, but the death of an option Canadians have had for decades.
Sure Zellers itself depending on your view has been dead for 3 or so years now, or still alive (technically 2 locations are still open) it is highly unlikely that HBC would have shuttered them the way Target is, if that lease buy-out never occurred in the first place.

That is what pisses me off.

on the replacement store scene, a friend in the kamloops area, said that there were Ikea shirts walking around one of their targets with measuring devices, so it looks like Ikea is looking at a few for their small regional store concept.

I can see how that would piss you off. Zellers had died in my area (replaced by the bay discount warehouses) so I never saw it as the death of another option. It seems Lablaws will be taking some of the Target leases too.

Sad, Target is one of the first places to pick up the newest Transformers

Loblaws actually will likely be the big winner when all is said and done.

With the expansion plans they announced the other week, and the ability to negotiate with some of the larger lease holders for multiple locations at a time, Galen could make out like a bandit. Especially for some area where their market presence is lower.