Archived Target pulling out of Canada

[Life201]

I always thought it was a poor decision. I think opening a few stores (8-10 a year) near the border and expanding north slowly would have been a better approach. But what do I know.

Feel bad for the people up there. Target was in WAY over their heads to make a move like they did.

And looks like stock is up 1.5%.

I think they had the opportunity to buy all those empty store & they took the gamble.

The people making the decisions had little to lose since it was on the backs of the overworked & underpaid peons back in the USA who would be the ones suffering cuts to hours to accommodate this expansion.

 

[Life201]

What do you say to the people who f**ked this up?

It's already been said........."Gregg, you're fired."

Gregg didn't do this by himself. He had plenty of help wasting this money.

Heads should roll. "You're fired. And you're fired. And you're fired."

All those people involved that screwed it up costing the company billions. See ya.

I totally agree but why should the rich suffer when it's so much nicer to let the poor take the fall for you?

 

[commiecorvus]

I'm hoping the Canadian government requires Spot pay a nice chunk of separation pay to each and every Canadian citizen who loses their job.

I also feel bad for the Americans who flew up there to work but I don't think Spot will punish them.

 

[PullMeBackIn]

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/nat...lose-canadian-operations-133-stores/21799665/
I am so sorry for our fellow tm's up north

Jesus, it's so much worse than I thought. They're talking another $5.4 billion in losses. This year increased earnings and finally increased cash flow next year.

So we're at a billion for each of the 2 years they operated and another $5.4 billion in losses upon exit ... This is a monumental screw up which hasn't been seen in retail since the days of Kmart's all-inclusive retail shopping experience initiative.

I always thought it
was a poor decision. I think opening a few stores (8-10 a year) near the border and expanding north slowly would have been a better approach. But what do I know.

Feel bad for the people up there. Target was in WAY over their heads to make a move like they did.

And looks like stock is up 1.5%.

That was the correct course of action. They should have only done a few stores at a time to build up a following and in the negative, to be able to limit their losses.

It'll be interesting to see if they can recover from this or if this is the beginning of a long road ahead ala the previously mentioned Kmart woes...

 

[TSs]

Toronto Star says that Target Canada will Close All 133 Stores In 4-5 months



Target said that there was just no way to make Target Canada profitable anytime soon.

“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.”

Canada’s 133 Target stores employ about 17,600 people, with “nearly all Target Canada-based employees receive a minimum of 16 weeks of compensation, including wages and benefits coverage for employees who are not required for the full wind-down period,” the company says.

It will cost about $500 million to $600 million in cash to shut things down, with stores remaining open during a court-supervised liquidation period.

See the Toronto Star article at: http://www.thestar.com/business/2015/01/15/breaking-target-to-pull-out-of-canada.html

 

[RetailWorld]

FYI, officially a red topic for those of you whos identities are known by other TM's or corporate.

 

[waterspout]

FYI, officially a red topic for those of you whos identities are known by other TM's or corporate.

What does that mean?

 

[commiecorvus]

What does that mean?

I'm assuming something like talking about unions or any of a dozen other topics on this board that makes Spot edgy.

 

[Bosch]

What does that mean?

Means you can't talk about it.

 

[waterspout]

Well, maybe if Target didn't waste time and money monitoring this site, they could have found a way to make their business profitable. After all, we are in the business of selling things. Not espionage.

If they want to take the time and trouble to track my ISP, go for it.

But considering their track record, they'll bungle that too and track down a 95 year old woman in Saskatchewan. They couldn't keep people's credit card and debit card numbers safe. They can't run retail stores.

Even WalMart can run stores in foreign countries. Even China.

This s**t of opening and closing these stores is the one of the biggest clusterf**ks I've ever seen.

 

[Signkitty]

Means you can't talk about it.

Why can't we talk about it, its on the news.

 

[Bosch]

Why can't we talk about it, its on the news.

That is just what I was told, not that it wasn't public. Like I give two shits what spot wants.

 

[forgetfulSDA]

Red topic means that us as team members can't talk to the media about it. Really applies to ETLs and STLs.

 

[commiecorvus]

They certainly don't want you giving an opinion to a reporter or putting anything on Gawker etc.
Having anything out there that isn't vetted by Spot is a serious no no.
They want to control anything that shows up in the media.
This is a serious cluster and they really don't want anybody pointing that out, especially a peon in their own organization.

 

[Producer]

The thing I learned from my parents long ago is that pulling out doesn't matter if you do it too late.

 

[waterspout]

They certainly don't want you giving an opinion to a reporter or putting anything on Gawker etc.
Having anything out there that isn't vetted by Spot is a serious no no.
They want to control anything that shows up in the media.
This is a serious cluster and they really don't want anybody pointing that out, especially a peon in their own organization.

No one has to point it out. It's obvious.

Really, they should be ashamed of themselves. For that, I feel bad. So should they.

 

[Stocker]

I always thought it was a poor decision. I think opening a few stores (8-10 a year) near the border and expanding north slowly would have been a better approach. But what do I know.

Feel bad for the people up there. Target was in WAY over their heads to make a move like they did.

And looks like stock is up 1.5%.

Yeah the stock went up after this announcement. I really thought they would have keep at least a foothold in Canada ( keeping best performing 15-20 stores ) kinda shocked a little by all this. But I know all the number people looked this over and figured even a small amount of stores would just be to much of a loss. Feel bad for all the Canada Target team members we know you did your best.

 

[TiedAndDropped]

Maybe we will get more support in our stores now and more hours. God knows we need it

Somehow I doubt it. Spot is out another 5 Billion after losing 5 Billion last year, so there's even less cash for US operations.

 

[tellmeaboutatime]

Going all in was the wrong decision. Pulling out is late but the right decision imo. The thing that really really bothers me is how Target treats the people who really tried to make this work. The people who drank the kool aide and moved their entire lives. This along with the fiasco of the recent rescinded offers in Minneapolis really show how rotten Target is to its team members. I have been here for a long long time. I also know that my job is at Targets whim. I am looking

 

[TeamRed]

It's ashame they are closing. I really wanted to go visit guess that won't be happening now....... I did kinda see it coming though when someone recently said she visited Target Canada and she mentioned how different they were to our american stores and some items weren't in stock etc etc I am not sure what Canada store she visited though.

 

[CanuckTM]

I'm hoping the Canadian government requires Spot pay a nice chunk of separation pay to each and every Canadian citizen who loses their job..

We were told the offer at huddle this morning (won't say as not sure it's public), it's quite reasonable, certainly way beyond legal requirements for regular TMs.

Obviously we're all disappointed, but life is what it is - do hope the Americans who came up to work setting us up will be allowed to return to Spot in the south. Lot of people surprised at pulling out in under 2 years - barely enough time to do anything really.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

We were told the offer at huddle this morning (won't say as not sure it's public), it's quite reasonable, certainly way beyond legal requirements for regular TMs.

Obviously we're all disappointed, but life is what it is - do hope the Americans who came up to work setting us up will be allowed to return to Spot in the south. Lot of people surprised at pulling out in under 2 years - barely enough time to do anything really.

16 weeks of severance is giving out by spot.

 

[PinkZinnia]

They opened too many Canadian stores too fast. 133 stores within two years.. that just madness, conceived from someone who never lived through retail of the mid 80's. Bad Bad planning, but at least they aren't waiting 5 years to see if they would fly.. It looks like new management aren't big gamblers, which could be a good thing.. Someone has to try to take back operations and try to make some sort of a profit or if not a profit, at least cutting those insane losses...

I feel sorry for the Canadian team members.. On paper 16 weeks of salary and benefits sounds great, but the process of shutting down all those stores will be stressful.
I wish you all luck in getting new jobs...

 

[tgtguy]

I really hate it for the team members in Canada, I wish you all the best.. I also, never thought that Spot would pull out all toghether....maybe close some stores but not pull out all together. Spot needs to stop trying to open new stores and focus on the stores and team members that they do have...

 

[CanuckTM]

16 weeks of severance is giving out by spot.

Ok, that's public then
Busiest we've seen the store for a long long time today - lines from the checklanes all the way to towels.