I predicted this day would come, I really did. With Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, and the Hudson’s Bay, I just never really saw the large American franchise competing. I do not believe Canadians were going to leave there regular retailers that they have been loyal to for so long only to change allegiance to Target. Unless you haven’t heard folks, the news is quite the non-shocker. Target stores nationwide in the country of Canada are all due to shut down immediately.
If you are really in the blue about everything, I should start by telling you that Target is an American retailing company. Founded in 1902, its headquarters can be found in what I like to call “The City of Malls”, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Originally known as Goodfellow Dry Goods in 1902, then renamed Dayton Dry Goods Company in 1903, in 1962, the organization decided to open its first discount retail store naming it Target. It is America’s second largest discount retailer just behind the famous Wal-Mart. Fortunately for Target, it seems that most Americans prefer it and it seems to be their go-to store for everyday goods. Regrettably, Canadians did not feel the same.
The first Target stores opened in Canada on March 5, 2013 in Milton, Fergus and Guelph, Ontario as test stores to see whether or not the company would attract any attention. Their goal was to get all those shoppers who regularly crossed the border to buy goods from Targets in America, to instead flock over to the Canadian stores to receive their goods and treats. Alas, the Target Company’s plan backfired in their faces. It burned.
Yes, they did attract a lot of customers in the first couple of weeks in business but those numbers dropped quickly. Why, you ask? Consumers soon found out that a lot of the products they so heartedly crossed over onto American soil to buy were nowhere to be found within the Canadian stores. Therefore, the numbers from Target’s first quarter and second quarter in Canada were dramatically different. Canadians also thought prices were too high and the deals they found in the likes of Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, Sears, Shoppers Drug Mart, and even the American franchise of Target were not near to what they found at Target Canada. We Canadians were not experiencing the “Target experience” they usually get when they visit the American Target stores with super-low prices and an abundant choice of product storewide.
Come January 15, 2015, Target Canada announced they were going to be closing all Target franchises within Canada, a whooping 133 stores nationwide after only 22 months in business. Target lost $2.1 billion in their futile attempt at bringing over an American treasure to their sister country. Alas, I believe, like many, that the treasure box was cut in half. Prices weren’t as low, there were not as many choices of product to buy, and with all the other wonderful franchises Canada has to offer, Target just could not compete. What’s more, they even filed for bankruptcy at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the only way they would have been able to pay all of the employees they are laying off. Let us not forget those employees. Where will they work? Did Target think of that before packing their bags? I think that all the stores filling up those 133 empty rooms and buildings should give priority access for interviews and jobs to soon-to-be former Target Canada employees before others.
I have only been in American Target once and I had the time of my life. Though we did not buy much (unless we were in a book store, I did not expect much to be bought for me), just being in a room filled with so many toys gave me a rush I have never felt elsewhere. I have not been in any Canadian Target but I sure do hope that I can incorporate that in my scheduled plans. With the big all-most-go liquidation sale going on, I cannot wait to hear about the crazy Black-Friday-like frenzies that go down these last couple of Target days. An era is over, one not many really took advantage of. Life will change, it definitely will. We will turn back, all of us, even Target lovers, to our Wal-Marts, Canadian Tires and whatever else there is in this nation. We have a new found respect for our retailers who were not fazed by the arrival of a new rival. And we will be even more frantic in the buying of goods next holiday season when we once again cross that border.
And one little advice to Target Canada, if you cannot sell all the goods in your stores by the scheduled closing date, you could donate the school supplies to the schools in your store areas and the toys to the day care centers close by. I am sure this will be a big giving back to the Canadian communities that hosted you.
Boyson-Angelous.