The Fall of Target

Zellers. Remember that store? For years my family had been going there, particularly for the relatively affordable prices, browsing for socks, kitchen products, electronics – you name it. They carried a fairly wide selection and variety of goods.

But then came Target.

The excitement and media buzz of the American company opening their first Canadian stores was creeping towards us in the north. Even I, a person who normally wouldn’t be interested in the opening of a new store like Target, became intrigued. What kind of store was this? Would they have affordable deals and an assortment of apparel I prefer? What sort of products do they even sell? These are the types of questions I asked myself when I went to work at West Edmonton Mall every weekend, seeing the construction of Target on 87^th Avenue.

When the store finally did open, I remembered walking in… and I wasn’t too impressed. The feel and look was similar to a Zellers, but upgraded to a more modern day style. The stores color scheme was mostly red and white, resembling its bold and recognisable red Trademark. Like Zellers, it offered staples such as toilet paper, toothpaste and detergent – in line with its plan to lure customers away from Shoppers Drug Mart and Loblaw’s.              

But perhaps the most unsettling observation was the lack of product on the shelves. I remember walking into the home furnishing section, where an employee had attempted to construct a visual display. It was for a bedroom, where the product on display was a sectioned closet hanger for items like shoes or socks. The carpet under the display was dirty and poorly taped to the ground, and the hanger itself – made out of cloth – was ripped in certain areas. In general, it wasn’t a very luring advertisement, and definitely did not entice me to buy the product. Shelving around the display held almost no product, and other items that were offered had very little variety.   

Back at the company, everyone knew that the company launch was a disaster, but no one wanted to be the one to say it. There was also an element of helplessness. The deal made by CEO Greg Steinhafel, where he bought all of Zellers real estate, forced the company to open stores as fast as they could, to avoid paying rent on stores that weren’t operational. The leases made Target trudge forward, even though internally, everyone knew it was a bad idea.

It doesn’t take much to realize when something’s going wrong, whether it was the employees of Target or an average Joe like myself. Well before Target decided to pull out of Canada, I could see the state of the company by taking a walk through their store. Not long after that, Target left Canada.  

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/the-last-days-of-target-canada/