Thursday, January 15, 2015

Exit Target Stage Left

That's it, they're gone!  Target announced this morning that they were closing all of their Canadian locations.  This is big news, about on par with when they announced that they were entering the Canadian market (stage right), and everyone freaked out.  My newsfeed was prompt, and so the news had just broken and the inevitable freaking out that Target was leaving (stage left) had not yet hit the "analytics" section of the news.

This is serious gossipy business news.  I want analysis.  I want to know! What went wrong?  Why couldn't it be fixed? What's going to happen to Sarah Richardson's home décor products for Target Canada?  It was supposed to be coming out "sometime in 2015", specifically and I was excitedly waiting to see just what a combination of snappy prints and cheap textiles (which was the only logical result of a Sarah Richardson collaboration with Target Canada) was going to look like.  Would I buy it, or would I shrug my shoulders and walk out?  Seemingly, a lot of people were shrugging their shoulders and walking out. How did Sarah, such a savvy business person, sign onto a sinking ship?

The bigger impact, of course, will be on the wider Canadian economy, the analysts will tell us.  The impact on Target is clear - they're running back to the U.S. with their tail between their legs, marking yet another retailer who just couldn't make it in the Canadian market.  My biggest fear right now is the impact it will have on Nordstrom's planned expansion into Canada, which has already been delayed by lessons-learned-to-date of the Target Canada fiasco.  Goodness knows what their executives are thinking now.
 
My local Holt's is in the middle of shutting down, and I was counting on Nordstrom's to fill the "shoe sale" void that is being created.  Will Nordstrom's rethink, or charge ahead?  Where will I get cheap expensive shoes, if they back out?  With two small children, are cheap expensive shoes practical?  If they're on the second mark-down section, maybe....  I have a pair of hot pink shoes that says maybe not.  But still.

And just what is happening with Sears?  Are they going to make it or not?  And if they don't, where am I going to find basics?  Sears provides a wide array of things that other retailers just don't provide under one roof.  I need children's shoes, a new blanket, vacuum bag refills, and thread.  Sears delivers.  Otherwise, I need to go to a gazillion stores.  Who wants to do that?  The problem is I go there about twice a year.  Clearly, customers like me are not going to help Sears survive.

But back to Target Canada, who didn't make it, and the wider impact.  Will new foreign stores try to break into the Canadian market?  Will they claim that they can succeed where Target failed?  Or will this just spook everyone?  Will the Canadian stores, who were supposed to be running scared of Target, dial the competition back down?

And perhaps, if we're dreaming about a rosy Canadian retail future, people will realise that Canadians are one savvy lot who like a good sale and who like to comparison shop.  As I recall, that's why Marks and Spencer's was said to have not made it.

Turns out we all like a good shoe sale, with selection and stock, that's, you know, available in-store, here, in Canada, not just in the US.

I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere for the next retailer.


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