Target leaving Canada!

[annedougherty]

Well there is quite a selection of comments in here. Here are a few of mine that I did not read in the thread.

1. This should really come as no shock. There was talk of Target Can. bleeding red ink since the first day they opened. The gap only widened, not shrink. There was talk before last BF that it had better be a huge one to "save" the stores in Canada. Obviously that did not occur.
2. When Target came to Canada, they swallowed Zellers in one gulp. I do not believe that went bankrupt. According to Wikipedia, Target acquired the assets of Zeller's . It was a takeover.
3. When Target took over Zeller's it fired every single Zellers employee. Why? Simple. They were unionized. Target stores are not. Target and WM are both as big of union busters as you will find in North America. So they shut down stores, reopen under the new name and voila, no union!
4. The Target in the USA and Target in Canada are just NOT the same. When the Target name came to Canada, most people (myself included) expected the same low prices as found in Target USA. That did not happen. Things just are not the same here as in USA. Point blank. We are different, costs are higher, transportation is higher, taxes are higher. I don't think they took that into account.

So after much fanfare, Target will disappear into the abyss and be another part of our history in Canada. I think I can sum it best by saying:



Sad to see yes? First time it has been done, nope. Last time it will happen, hardly.

Oh and for the people talking about Sears, they have been in doo doo for years. I did see an article where they will honour Target employee discounts in their stores for a while (nice I think). May help Sears a bit. Also I read somewhere in this thread about stores where the Target are located being hurt. In what I read, a lot of them have clauses in their leases where they can break their lease if the "anchor tenant" becomes insolvent (bankrupt). With Target getting protection from creditiors, they are now insolvent. It is now part of the protection that those tenants cannot break those leases for the time being. One big legal mess which means, as always, lawyers will win while consumers get the shaft!

Bye Target, don't forget to turn off the lights when you leave us. Stay home next time.

#bringbackZellers!

Wowwwww...and not the good kind of wow

[torontogal12]

Target did not acquire any assets that were owned by Zellers. HBC sold the leases. Don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia. Any informed or misinformed person can click a button and edit Wikipedia.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/targ...-1-8b-1.981132

U.S. retailer Target said Thursday it is buying the store leases of Canadian discount retail chain Zellers from the U.S. investor who owns the Hudson's Bay Co. assets for $1.8 billion.

There was never a takeover. And Zellers never went bankrupt, HBC just decided to close them all.

Target did not fire any Zellers employee because they came to Canada with Zero employees and opened up shop and had to hire from scratch. They did hire some Zellers employees (just like any retailer would hire someone with retail experience) but not all

Well there is quite a selection of comments in here. Here are a few of mine that I did not read in the thread.

1. This should really come as no shock. There was talk of Target Can. bleeding red ink since the first day they opened. The gap only widened, not shrink. There was talk before last BF that it had better be a huge one to "save" the stores in Canada. Obviously that did not occur.
2. When Target came to Canada, they swallowed Zellers in one gulp. I do not believe that went bankrupt. According to Wikipedia, Target acquired the assets of Zeller's . It was a takeover.
3. When Target took over Zeller's it fired every single Zellers employee. Why? Simple. They were unionized. Target stores are not. Target and WM are both as big of union busters as you will find in North America. So they shut down stores, reopen under the new name and voila, no union!


Bye Target, don't forget to turn off the lights when you leave us. Stay home next time.

#bringbackZellers!

Funny how when Zellers was closing people said good riddance and now that Target is closing people want Zellers back again.

I personally don't want any retailer to stay home next time. More competition for Canadian consumers and more jobs for Canadian people. Anyone who wants to invest money in my country is welcome

[annedougherty]

Target did not acquire any assets that were owned by Zellers. HBC sold the leases. Don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia. Any informed or misinformed person can click a button and edit Wikipedia.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/targ...-1-8b-1.981132

U.S. retailer Target said Thursday it is buying the store leases of Canadian discount retail chain Zellers from the U.S. investor who owns the Hudson's Bay Co. assets for $1.8 billion.

There was never a takeover. And Zellers never went bankrupt, HBC just decided to close them all.

Target did not fire any Zellers employee because they came to Canada with Zero employees and opened up shop and had to hire from scratch. They did hire some Zellers employees (just like any retailer would hire someone with retail experience) but not all




Funny how when Zellers was closing people said good riddance and now that Target is closing people want Zellers back again.

I personally don't want any retailer to stay home next time. More competition for Canadian consumers and more jobs for Canadian people. Anyone who wants to invest money in my country is welcome

Thank you for saying that for me while I was rendered speechless

[Decaf]

Target never owned Zellers, if anyone wants Zellers back go bug HBC.

[FallenPixels]

I for one was happy when Zellers closed, apart from the loss of my SPC card and having to use up my HBC points because I rarely shop at The Bay. I was especially happy that they did not hire back all of the rude Zellers employees. There was a reason Zellers was suffering losses - people did not want to shop there and the employees were a huge part of that.

People went through this when Walmart opened a load of Canadian stores, the prices here (for any store) will never match the US. We have different import fees, taxes and the cost of living is different. The price of something in a country where the min wage is over $10 will be different to somewhere with a $6 min wage. The cost of gas to transport goods is higher here and the hoops our government make stores jump through are greater (like making Target agree to have a percentage of items made in Canada).

I am sorry to see Target go, but I don't think it was anything to do with Zellers. They had stock issues and perception issues. Look at how many people are posting about what they see as liquidation sales when it is regular Target clearance. If they had been in their shopping all along, instead of just thinking the prices were too high without ever setting foot in the door, maybe Target would have been profitable.

[tobiwobi]

It took me some time to warm up to Target because I was forced to self-check out because they didn't have any cashiers open, and the stupid system was not working. And that was my 1st experience. I came to like Target though and I'm sad to see them go. Someone said that Target US was Target Canada's biggest competition and I think it is true, so frustrating to see all goodies on their US website, and we get just a fraction in our stores.

Now, I was at the erin mills/missisauga walmart and was shocked to find they replaced express cashiers sith self check out stations. Made a beeline for the exit, dropping all my stuff i was about to purchase. I hate the arrogance of retailers thinking they dont need cashiers because people will check themselves out.

[Midnightly]

Now, I was at the erin mills/missisauga walmart and was shocked to find they replaced express cashiers sith self check out stations. Made a beeline for the exit, dropping all my stuff i was about to purchase. I hate the arrogance of retailers thinking they dont need cashiers because people will check themselves out.

i was told that walmart was doing away with the self check out (and the reason our super walmart doesn't have them) is the high incidence if theft

[Midnightly]

I for one was happy when Zellers closed, apart from the loss of my SPC card and having to use up my HBC points because I rarely shop at The Bay. I was especially happy that they did not hire back all of the rude Zellers employees. There was a reason Zellers was suffering losses - people did not want to shop there and the employees were a huge part of that.

I am sorry to see Target go, but I don't think it was anything to do with Zellers. They had stock issues and perception issues. Look at how many people are posting about what they see as liquidation sales when it is regular Target clearance. If they had been in their shopping all along, instead of just thinking the prices were too high without ever setting foot in the door, maybe Target would have been profitable.

if people want to be mad about zellers closing they should not be pissed at target.. they should be pissed at HBC it was HBC that sold all the leases, it was HBC that closed zellers NOT target

zellers was badly run.. things lacked change over, things were wildly over priced, the stores were disorganized horribly even the staff didn't know where to find things! (a multi year zellers employee could not tell me where to find the birthday candles!) the quality of the clothing was often questionable.. the stores were old, they were rundown, falling apart (things were patched with duct tape!) the staff didn't care (or they just lost the joy of taking pride in their work.. or they were just too worn down to care) i'm sure there were some great staff members, but there were soo many who were just unhappy to be at work

when target came in it was bright, it was fresh, it was a positive atmosphere, the staff were happy to be working there it was a complete 180 to zellers

when zellers left.. target moved in and picked up the slack in the retail market... now with target leaving.. there's no store picking up that slack.. so your only choice is to go off to walmart (now imagine a whole city shopping at walmart...i'm not looking forward to it )

[megansavingmoney]

And to think less than 2 weeks ago I asked on the Target Facebook page if they were bringing the Cartwheel app to Canada.

[FLA]

They bought zellers store buildings, now they have to sell them all.

[TorontoRaptors]

Now, I was at the erin mills/missisauga walmart and was shocked to find they replaced express cashiers sith self check out stations. Made a beeline for the exit, dropping all my stuff i was about to purchase. I hate the arrogance of retailers thinking they dont need cashiers because people will check themselves out.--tobiwobi

i shop mostly at the erin mills location and the sq1 location, i normally do the opposite if i see the self check outs are closed when i get there i leave! Scanning is super easy, and they normally have a fast pass to make pming and couponing much easier! i find the cashiers are sometimes in a rush to move there line so try to argue a little which only holds their line up more.

[FallenPixels]

They bought zellers store buildings, now they have to sell them all.

Most are leased, not owned I think
Not good for the plaza/mall owners who have to find a tenant for those big stores or lose an anchor tenant that brings people to the smaller ones if they split them up into smaller units

[bella_bamba]

Most are leased, not owned I think
Not good for the plaza/mall owners who have to find a tenant for those big stores or lose an anchor tenant that brings people to the smaller ones if they split them up into smaller units

This is correct although RioCan did build a few of their own locations so those would be considered "owned real estate" by Target. Those aren't bad as they were mostly in big box locations or stand alone. It's the ones anchored in a store that will suffer. We had a Rona go out of buisness in Scarborough that has been empty almost a year or so and I was always telling my mom "I hope Target opens up here, it's the perfect spot!!".

I mean the past few weeks shopping at Target were getting really deserted so I figured they would have at least another year here before they decided to pull the plug on a few locations, not ALL! Still wished they would've considered keeping a few major city stores that were doing well.

[Melissa Winter]

2. When Target came to Canada, they swallowed Zellers in one gulp. I do not believe that went bankrupt. According to Wikipedia, Target acquired the assets of Zeller's . It was a takeover.
3. When Target took over Zeller's it fired every single Zellers employee. Why? Simple. They were unionized. Target stores are not. Target and WM are both as big of union busters as you will find in North America. So they shut down stores, reopen under the new name and voila, no union!

Bye Target, don't forget to turn off the lights when you leave us. Stay home next time.

#bringbackZellers!

yes, because everything you read on Wikipedia is 100% true all the time…ALSO you want to know a secret as to why ALL the Zellers employees were "fired" as you say…because the store closed down & if a store closes down generally they no longer need employees…

[theweave3162]

Well since I got that reaction.... points all taken. Targets are closing by May. The end.