Target Canada: the billion dollar mistake

[Jacob]

From a shopper's perspective, it was definitely supply chain issues that destroyed them. It was like the old saying, 'you never get a second chance to make a first impression'. People were very excited to try the new Target stores - but when they went, they found shelves often bare of merchandise, and what was there was not organized in any coherent manner; they mostly went "well, this sucks" and did not come back.

Yeah, you kept hearing how Target was this amazing experience - or, once people got over their hype, that it was like Walmart only nicer and with branding that made it okay to shop there even if you looked down on "Walmart people". They spent a lot of time advertising how great it was going to be too. I mean, I'm not really a big-box-retail shopping kind of guy but I was still looking forward to Target opening from all the damn advertising building up expectations.

But they rather failed to deliver on the hype.

[Ed Anger]

Target ususally has nicer jailbait. Especially in the summer.

[Monoriu]

If I ever go to the US again, I will make going to a Target/Walmart a priority. 

[Admiral Yi]

If I ever go to the US again, I will make going to a Target/Walmart a priority.

why?

[Monoriu]

If I ever go to the US again, I will make going to a Target/Walmart a priority.

why?

Because I have never been to one before.  They are so famous and so well-known.  I've actually considered buying Walmart stock and I'd like to see what I am buying. 

[DGuller]

That reads as one spectacular major failure to me.  Target Canada should never have been the same business unit as Target USA.  Maybe it's because I spend my time neck-deep in systems analysis these days, but there are obvious differences that were so major that Target Canada should never have tried to use the same processes as Target USA in the first place.  They should have pulled a Google, rolled out a new holding company, say, "Target Ventures Holdings" or something super-creative like that, and had both TC and TUSA as separate businesses reporting to that parent.

I mean, c'mon.  Metric vs. Imperial, US dollar vs. Canadian dollar, Canadian tax laws vs. US tax laws... my systems analysis professor would argue that those are clearly so different that trying to use US processes for a Canadian business is bordering on criminal negligence.

The first time I heard that Target was expanding to Canada, it was immediately obvious to me that this venture was a total disaster.

[Eddie Teach]

The first time I heard that Target was expanding to Canada, it was immediately obvious to me that this venture was a total disaster.

And after he invested his life savings into it, it became even more clear.