Ten years ago: The short-lived rise and fall of Target Canada

[jackandcat]

Ten years ago, after less than 18 months to set up supply chains and generally adapt to doing business in a foreign country, Target Canada's first stores opened their doors to Canadian shoppers. For a variety of reasons - including financial and reputational problems occurring in 2013-2014 surrounding the 2013 U.S. Target data security breach, Target abruptly shut down Target Canada's operations. Target Canada was placed in bankruptcy protection. There are many details to the story, but under former CEO Gregg Steinhafel a lot of bad assumptions were made.

Having said that, if Steinhafel had sought wise counsel from US retailers who had actual experience setting up shop in a foreign country, moving into Canada could have been successful. I have no intention of second-guessing current CEO Cornell's decision to terminate Target Canada, just express a bit of regret about what might have been.

I'd like to offer a few commercials by Target Canada which aired on Canadian television back in the day.

Emmy Award-winning Target Canada rollout commercial

TARGET "CAN'T WAIT TO MEET YOU NEIGHBOR" / Laird / Music Sup. / Fred Rogers Remake by Dragonette

Target Canada Commercial - Everyone and Everything

Target Canada - Back to School Commercial (2013)

 

[can't touch this]

Target Canada‘s goofiest mistake by far was not hiring Rob Ford as their COO

 

[can't touch this]

Also the cringe is worsened by the fact that Canada is not even a foreign country in the true sense but simply a sparsely populated boreal wasteland just waiting to be annexed

 

[The Dude Abides]

I live right near the border and my DTL at the time actually took a position very high up in the chain of command at Target Canada. I remember telling him it was going to be a disaster because Target didn't understand the Canadian market at all. It was such an obviously predictable failure even without the benefit of hindsight.

 

[animalcrossing]

Ten years ago, after less than 18 months to set up supply chains and generally adapt to doing business in a foreign country, Target Canada's first stores opened their doors to Canadian shoppers. For a variety of reasons - including financial and reputational problems occurring in 2013-2014 surrounding the 2013 U.S. Target data security breach, Target abruptly shut down Target Canada's operations. Target Canada was placed in bankruptcy protection. There are many details to the story, but under former CEO Gregg Steinhafel a lot of bad assumptions were made.

Having said that, if Steinhafel had sought wise counsel from US retailers who had actual experience setting up shop in a foreign country, moving into Canada could have been successful. I have no intention of second-guessing current CEO Cornell's decision to terminate Target Canada, just express a bit of regret about what might have been.

I'd like to offer a few commercials by Target Canada which aired on Canadian television back in the day.

Emmy Award-winning Target Canada rollout commercial

TARGET "CAN'T WAIT TO MEET YOU NEIGHBOR" / Laird / Music Sup. / Fred Rogers Remake by Dragonette

Target Canada Commercial - Everyone and Everything

Target Canada - Back to School Commercial (2013)

The Mr. Rogers remake commercial was bittersweet; I watched mister rogers neighborhood a ton as a kid

 

[can't touch this]

I hate to say it but Mr.Rogers always creeped me tf out as a kid and watching his show always made me feel like running a bicycle chain through my belt loops and fly just to be on the safe side

 

[jackandcat]

The Mr. Rogers remake commercial was bittersweet; I watched mister rogers neighborhood a ton as a kid

Towards the end of that commercial, I loved the shots of Vancouver's Stanley Park and Burrard Inlet!
Betraying my age, I have priceless childhood memories of four visits to Expo '86 -- a long drive from the Seattle area for a Disneyland-like experience. Tickets to Expo '86 were CAD$20 each, inflation adjusted for 2023 Canadian dollars is CAD$47.86.

 

[jackandcat]

Target Canada Manifesto - French
Target Canada English Manifesto
Target Canada - comedy skit on This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This comedy routine really hits home!

 

[Planosss]

Also the cringe is worsened by the fact that Canada is not even a foreign country in the true sense but simply a sparsely populated boreal wasteland just waiting to be

Clearly you haven’t been to Canada..

 

[Yetive]

Towards the end of that commercial, I loved the shots of Vancouver's Stanley Park and Burrard Inlet!
Betraying my age, I have priceless childhood memories of four visits to Expo '86 -- a long drive from the Seattle area for a Disneyland-like experience. Tickets to Expo '86 were CAD$20 each, inflation adjusted for 2023 Canadian dollars is CAD$47.86.

My memories of Expo '67 are pretty fuzzy, but I remember how excited everyone was more than any particular pavilion.

 

[employee 626]

Isn't Canada why they sold the pharmacy to CVS?

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Isn't Canada why they sold the pharmacy to CVS?

No.

4 IT lessons learned from Target Canada’s failure as documented by Canadian Business | IT Business

A lengthy exposé about the failure of Target Canada by Canadian Business has been getting a lot of attention, and for good reason. But the people that should be paying the most attention are those responsible for IT implementations at other retailers. The feature by Joe Castaldo was crafted...

www.itbusiness.ca

 

[balthrop]

Also the cringe is worsened by the fact that Canada is not even a foreign country in the true sense but simply a sparsely populated boreal wasteland just waiting to be annexed

odd fact the us did invade Canada at least once and failed.

 

[jackandcat]

Isn't Canada why they sold the pharmacy to CVS?

No. Target incurred massive financial problems from the late 2013 data security breach. It was described by business analysts as the largest data breach in US history (at that time in 2013). Target's high-level mucky-mucks withheld disclosure of the breach for several weeks. Financial hemorrhaging from the data breach led to the sale of Target Pharmacy to CVS. The ongoing doggy-doo of the data breach led to significant decline in sales revenue.

Had the data security breach not occurred and caused such draconian impact on Target's bottom line - and Target's consumer reputation in the US -- it's likely that Target Canada would have stayed in business. Even in 2014, with the logistics bumps in the road, many analysts noted that Target Canada would become profitable by 2020. I could see a scenario where Target Canada reduced its number of stores, focusing on the underlying fundamentals to build a solid foundation for Canadian guests.

What's the old adage here? "Coulda, woulda, shoulda". Oh, Canada!