Target

[Zayre88]

Target Canada will open their first Quebec stores on September 17th, more on October 19th.

Yes, but will there be stuff to buy in them?  ;D

So... I have visited our local Target store this evening.  In one phrase: "It looks and feels like a US Target store"

The layout is the same, colors, bathrooms, Target brands, price tags, sale signs, electronics, baby, all very similar or the same as US stores.

Some prices are higher than in the US, some items have the same prices, most items are comparable to what you see at other retailers.

Some shelves were empty here and there, but overall the store was at least 95% full.

[retailisking]

http://metronews.ca/news/halifax/796363/in-picutres-target-gives-media-sneak-peek-of-mic-mac-mall-store-hrm-locations-opening-tuesday/
http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/Business/2013-09-17/article-3393220/Target-opens-first-of-its-Atlantic-Canada-stores/1


The pre-launch was not without controversy
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mic-mac-mall-pulls-controversial-ad-campaign-1.1348628

[Zayre88]

Small menswear department at our local store: 

Probably half of the normal US store size.  But the entire store is 85,000 sq.ft. compared to the average 125,000 sq.ft. seen in the US.

[retailisking]

Wow, that is tiny. Is there any wasted space in your local store? It always struck me that the snack bar was a waste of space as that part of the store saw so little foot traffic.

[d_fife]

hows Target in Canada doing?

[Zayre88]

Wow, that is tiny. Is there any wasted space in your local store? It always struck me that the snack bar was a waste of space as that part of the store saw so little foot traffic.

It's tiny, but to be fair there is one more aisle on the left not seen in the picture.

I think they dd what they could with the smaller, odd-sized store.  85,000 sq.ft. with one corner of the store that has a 45° angle (similar to the JCPenney in Nashua), and the store has two entrances (one in the front and one for the Mall).

They did keep the wide aisles. Maybe they could have saved some space there but not that much.  They kept the Starbucks as small as possible, tucked in a corner right by the entrance.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Target used to have McGlynn Bakery stores back in the store's early days before they had Starbucks Coffee shops. Food Avenue/Food Express stores were also found in most of Target's earlier locations, long before they were (mostly) replaced by Pizza Hut Express or Taco Bell Express. In the Target Greatland stores, their snack bar has the Food Avenue menu alongside a Pizza Hut (or Taco Bell) Express menu and Starbucks Coffee menu.

[Zayre88]

People on Facebook kept complaining about empty shelves at the stores opened during Spring and Summer.

Our local store has opened on September 17th, almost all shelves were full except around 5% empty spots here and there.  I thought they had fixed these issues.

However, 3 weeks after the opening it's painful to watch.  The store is full of empty shelves, especially in grocery, households and health & beauty products. Sale items ran out after a day or two and were not replenished.  Regular priced items slowly vanished and were not replenished!

The Market Pantry brand appears to be successful but not a single item that has run out has been replenished in 3 weeks!  Unbelievable.  I have visited the store four times and saw products go away and today that shelf is simply empty and has sat empty for days. Target will open 9 more stores in 10 days, they need to fix their supply chain fast, customers appear willing to buy but will be walking away....

[ynkeesfn82]

More Trouble for Target.

Just weeks after a security breech that put 40 million customers at risk for identity theft, a new problem has emerged at Target. Many gift cards were sold that weren't properly activated.

http://www.wfsb.com/story/24336383/target-reveals-gift-card-snafu

[ynkeesfn82]

Target has just revealed that the Security Breach that occurred between the end of November and the middle of December has effected 70 million customers, not 40 million as originally thought. Target also revealed customer's email addresses may have been compromised.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/target-says-stolen-info-data-breach-hit-70-million-people-2D11894083

[ynkeesfn82]

Despite what the URL says,Now it's up to 110 million.  :o

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international/Target-Says-Data-Breach-Affected-70-Million-Shoppers-credit-monitoring-239600681.html

[JimSawhill]

Just look at gas prices and retail wages in Canada, they are higher and so are taxes, social costs and so on.

Canada's population is smaller than California but scattered in a country bigger than the United States.  Distribution will be expensive.

There's also translating costs for the province of Quebec.  Target has to have their systems operating in two languages and must translate every ad, document, flyer, signs and more throughout the company.

Target translation cost is the same -- here it is Spanish (at least in Canada, French is an official language, unlike Spanish here)

[retailisking]

All SuperTargets, AFAIK...
http://www.rttnews.com/2249540/target-plans-to-close-eight-u-s-stores-cuts-q4-u-s-segment-adj-eps-view.aspx

[ynkeesfn82]

A small fire tonight at the Target at the Enfield Square Mall has been deemed suspicious. The store may not be able to reopen tomorrow.

http://www.wfsb.com/story/24559360/enfield-mall-evacuated-due-to-small-fire

[ynkeesfn82]

A small fire tonight at the Target at the Enfield Square Mall has been deemed suspicious. The store may not be able to reopen tomorrow.

http://www.wfsb.com/story/24559360/enfield-mall-evacuated-due-to-small-fire

The Target did in fact reopen today 1/28/14. The fire has been ruled an arson. They don't yet know if the fire is connected to a string of arson fires at department stores across the country.

http://www.wfsb.com/story/24559360/enfield-target-reopens-following-fire

Editors Note: This is the first I've heard of a string of arson fires at department stores across the country. Has anyone else heard about this?

[ynkeesfn82]

Does anyone think Target in Meriden, Connecticut should move across the street into The Westfield Meriden Square Mall in the JCP spot once they close in May? Although that will mean yet another giant sized empty building in Meriden, I think this would help the mall. Westfield already has a Target at their mall in Trumbull. Plus if they took over the JCP spot that would give them a bigger store in Meriden. Their current store is kind of on the small side. Several malls have Targets in them such as Westfield Trumbull Shopping Park, Enfield Square Mall, Holyoke Mall in Holyoke, Mass.

[bubcolbert1952]

Isn't Target a bad fit for Canadian shopping centers? I always have thought of Target as being an "urban" retailer, and it is a company that traditionally has avoided even the most slightly rural smaller towns. I admit I don't know too much about Canada but my understanding is that their culture is much more rural than urban, in both Quebec and the English-speaking regions, so Target just doesn't seem to belong except perhaps in the biggest cities. Walmart is much more rural-oriented (after all it started in Arkansas) and seems to be perfect for Canada for this reason. Kmart also is very rural-friendly, not surprising because while it started in Detroit, it evolved from Kresge, which along with Woolworth was able to fit into both urban main streets and in small towns.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Isn't Target a bad fit for Canadian shopping centers? I always have thought of Target as being an "urban" retailer, and it is a company that traditionally has avoided even the most slightly rural smaller towns. I admit I don't know too much about Canada but my understanding is that their culture is much more rural than urban, in both Quebec and the English-speaking regions, so Target just doesn't seem to belong except perhaps in the biggest cities. Walmart is much more rural-oriented (after all it started in Arkansas) and seems to be perfect for Canada for this reason. Kmart also is very rural-friendly, not surprising because while it started in Detroit, it evolved from Kresge, which along with Woolworth was able to fit into both urban main streets and in small towns.

Kmart had their chance in Canada and they failed. Kmart Canada called it quits in 1998, their CEO at the time became CEO of Zellers and most of their stores were picked up by Zellers. Most of the Zellers stores are now Target, except for a few which became Walmart and other retailers.


"It's aboot time for Target Canada to step up their game, eh?"

[Stork of The Weak]

If Target fails in Canada, who else is left to buy the former stores up there? Kohl's? Being from Wisconsin maybe they should try the market. Meijer also might be a good idea.

[ynkeesfn82]

Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel has resigned in the wake of the data breach fallout.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/05/05/target-ceo-gregg-steinhafel-resigns-in-wake-of-data-breach-fallout/

[Stork of The Weak]

On another topic, would anyone here happen to know what became of the Target featured throughout the 1991 movie "Career Opportunities"? I know it was a former Richway in the Atlanta GA area, which would have been converted to Target in the late 80's. But I don't know what town this store actually was in. Target relocated a number of their former Richway stores to new-build Target Greatland stores fairly early, around 1995, and I know a few of the obsolete stores became Value City at that point. But that chain (except for Value City Furniture or are they gone now too?) went out of business several years back.

Also could someone please help me find pictures of the former Richway/Target stores in their Value City years, and pictures of the early-mid 90's Target Greatland stores when they were new?

[TheFugitive]

I remember when Career Opportunities came out.   Discount Store News had a cover story
glowing about what a wonderful thing it was going to be for the discount retail industry.

Turns out all it did was reinforce the idea of how much it can suck to work for one.
Obviously no one at DSN had read the script.

[Zayre88]

Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel has resigned in the wake of the data breach fallout.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/05/05/target-ceo-gregg-steinhafel-resigns-in-wake-of-data-breach-fallout/

That's a big news.  !!

Steinhafel, a 35-year Target employee, had been working to regain customers’ loyalty after hackers stole card data and personal information at the height of the Christmas season last year. The company already replaced its top technology executive in the wake of the breach. The retailer’s Canadian expansion also has struggled to gain a foothold, weighing on profit.

[Zayre88]

Target has fired the president of its troubled Canadian operations, Tony Fisher

[Hudsons81]

Today, I went inside the Target that is located behind the northwest corner of Southland Center in Taylor, Michigan. It originally opened in 1987 as one of Metro Detroit's original six Target stores and was remodeled to add a PFresh section in early 2013. Unsurprisingly enough, it's located almost directly across from the mall's Macy's anchor, which was originally Hudson's and later Marshall Field's-Hudson's, Marshall Field's and Target were all once owned by the same parent company!

[ynkeesfn82]

I guess Target makes the interior of all their stores look similar. That basically looks like every Target I've been to and I've been to 3 of varying sizes - Southington, CT (my local store) off of West Street - New Britain, CT (near the Westfarms Mall, which when it first opened was called Target Greatland), and Meriden on the Chamberlain Highway across the street from the Westfield Mariden Square Mall.

[retailisking]

A four-story CityTarget is under construction in Boston's Fenway neighborhood; unlike most CityTargets, this one is about the size of a normal store
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/10/10/target-tries-new-bigger-strategy-for-fenway-area-store/NawRMoCeTDQUX7WAUqaZ7H/story.html

[Hudsons81]

This just in: Target is soon going to close plenty of locations across the country-in Michigan, these stores are Northland Center in Southland, the Mall of Monroe in Frenchtown Township and one in northern Bay City.

http://pressroom.target.com/news/target-announces-upcoming-store-closures

This is pretty surprising, considering that this is during a time when both Kmart and Sears stores left and right all over the country are closing for similar reasons.

[retailisking]

TGT is openly considering shuttering its loss-making Canadian division in the new year
http://globalnews.ca/news/1683051/will-they-stay-or-go-targets-future-in-canada-far-from-certain/

[MikeRa]

This just in: Target is soon going to close plenty of locations across the country-in Michigan, these stores are Northland Center in Southland, the Mall of Monroe in Frenchtown Township and one in northern Bay City.

http://pressroom.target.com/news/target-announces-upcoming-store-closures

This is pretty surprising, considering that this is during a time when both Kmart and Sears stores left and right all over the country are closing for similar reasons.

There was no stores from SE PA or Southern NJ or DE on that list.