Why Target FAILED in Canada
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ย. 2024
- Target failed in Canada and they absolutely deserve it. Did you know that at one point Target tried to expand into Canada? It was a massively embarrassing failure. Let's see why Target failed in Canada.
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Thank you so much for supporting my channel and my work. This is a one man show and I do literally everything for this channel. I love making videos for you all. Thank you for letting me do this. -Nate
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Business:
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Twitter: / modernbusin
Do you think Target deserved their failure in Canada? -Nate
There is a location in Toronto, that was a Zellers, turned into a Target, then a Lowe's, now a Canada Computer store. All within 10 years.
Lowe's didn't have a chance in Canada either. They opened in 2009, then pulled out in 2023.
Sounds like it. I'm sorry this didn't get a lot of views.
There's a different channel that I used to listen to, with a couple guys who live in Canada, and on one of their podcasts, they talked about the Zellers/Target situation. They summed up the problem as being twofold: empty shelves for even basic commodities like socks, and a corporate culture that in several ways was incompatible with Canadian cultural norms. I guess Target just assumed that Canada was a 1:1 with America, and found out the hard way that it isn't.
Another big factor that wasn't really mentioned in this video was the price difference between US and Canadian stores. Canadians have the internet too (not to mention the regular cross-border shoppers) and can calculate exchange rates and saw they were getting taken for a ride on whatever paltry stock was even available. A lot of the stuff was at least 30% or more higher than in the US stores and more expensive than all of their so-called Canadian competitors at the time. They tried to get by on brand recognition alone and thought they could get a premium for it from gullible Canadians but was just another reason they fell flat on their faces.
they were empty as well. I have visited one, left empty-handed
My local one had most of its customers coming in for the starbucks (we didnt have 1 in my city at the time)
Canadian shoppers wanted an American Target store.
Empty shelves, high prices & no website = retail doom.
This is a good one sentence summary tbh
I'm American and truly dislike Target You are so correct always out of everything I hate the layout and I don't feel their stuff is inexpensive ughhh
As a Canadian when they came to Canada it left a really sour taste in my mouth, so I never went. First they were taking over and renaming a legendary Canadian brand, Zellers. But the biggest thing is how they handled Zellers employees. They made all of them reapply for their own jobs. I'm not down with companies that mistreat their workers, so I never shopped there.
Then they never got their supply chain right, which was fatal. At least the Zeller's concept has returned to Hudson's Bay stores.
I knew someone who worked there. They said the reason for things not fitting into shipping containers, trailers and and even on the shelves was that.. Well.. inches and centimetres are not the same. If something is entered as 5cm wide.. it will not fit in that space if its actually 5 inches.
A 10-second code fix to save $7 billion.
You really don't get a second chance to make a first impression. I'm sure that a lot of Canadians wanted to try out a store that was famous in America, but not enough to keep going back to a clearly half-finished one. A physical store will only have so many people in driving distance, so it's doomed if it disappoints too many of them.
Amazing point. First impressions mean a lot
Target purchased Zellers sight unseen: no 'as-builts' or site surveys that caused sky-rocketing construction costs. One store had a pylon run through a sewer line, causing delays. Another issue was that Target did not identify that people choose to travel the the USA for good prices: Canadian prices were much higher. The expansion was doomed from the start by overzealous executives that believed they could no wrong. The biggest looser-laid off employees in the US. At least they received severence pay. US contractors working in Canada got pennies on the dollar or nothing for their work.
And now Zellers is back. Not as a standalone but as a store-in-store inside select HBC locations.
Haha that’s wild. You a fan of Zellers?
It has nothing to do with zellers, It basically just the bay with some zellers logos slapped around and nothing interesting in a typical the bay fashion.
@@modernbusinesschannel I did buy a floor lamp from them lol. The one near me is mostly focused on home goods, I'll go there every once in awhile. Honestly, Zellers and the wrist watch section are probably the only parts of HBC I'll browse around.
Canadian here... it was a weird time for this much talked about American retail place, it really wasn't much in display (shelves were plentiful but lots and lots of huge gaps of merch on display made it look weirdly empty) but I kinda miss them sometimes
Maybe they’ll come back one day
@@modernbusinesschannelI mean I miss them in a vague sense, not enough to truly care... even if they did, I would take a huge wait and see approach before stepping foot in one of their canadian locations again.
I remember going to Target, it was well stocked and clean, but there were barely any customers in the store. There were barely any deals at all, everything was msrsp. It was no different than going to Walmart, just a different logo at the door.
So basically no reason to go to Target over Walmart?
It was a little bit more expensive than walmart if I remember correctly.
This is exactly how it is in America, but we are stupid so I guess we're happy to pay more for the same thing :)
@@nickloughner7512 Nono, see, the higher price in America is a premium to not be shopping at Walmart.
American Walmart is basically the Twilight Zone compared to international Walmarts.
@@nickloughner7512 Well, if you get the same basket of goods, yes. But half the stuff is cheaper at one or the other. It's the same thing in Canada, their consumers would have figured out what to get at TGT and what to get elsewhere.
don't let it be a like modern baseball hiatus we miss you Nate much love
I remember when Target opened in Canada. Not only were there empty shelves, what was in stock in the food area was usually expired.
Oh yum! Lol
I remember that people were furious that target failed not because they liked target, but because they killed zellers and when they closed, that ended a lot of people’s access to Starbucks. Nobody really cared about target. Not to mention a lot of targets excess product was already being sold in the maritimes and Atlantic provinces, so out there they knew immediately that real target was shit.
Oh dang this is cool to know
@@modernbusinesschannelmy mom landed in Newfoundland in the late 80’s, and this had been a staple discount deal since then at least
They failed to recognize their true competition. Wasn't just Walmart but Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Rona, Dollarama, Giant Tiger, Marks, etc. All with established supply chains.
When Walmart opened they immediately had Canadian made products like their name brand jeans or food product. This sped up delivery time and control. Their jeans were actually very good.
Back to Target. The only Target products I bought was from Dollarama where on the back of things I saw Target Canada. Fire sale anybody.😊
I couldn’t understand this when it happened. Target came and went so hard.
As a kid on vacation visiting target in Southern California was so different than it was in Alberta and BC.
Target came into Canada around when my daughter was first born. I actually bought her baby clothes there a lot, they had great deals.
It's kind of the same as Walmart without Walmart people, lol. Although I agree their clothes are better.
My wife is Canadian and she talks vividly about how bad Target was. People in Toronto went to places like No Frills, FreshCo, or Walmart, and Target came in asking for like a 25% markup on all the same exact items that already existed in other retailers and quite quickly failed
Actually, it was worse than that. The supply chain software was from an Israeli company and had never been tested on this scale before. It was originally designed for a small to medium-sized business with one or two warehouses and was not set up for communications with suppliers initially. That combined with bad data being loaded into an untested system riddled with bugs and not designed to work at a scale of millions f products, dozens of warehouses and hundreds of stores.
They expected to be profitable by 2021 at the earliest but there's no way they could've factored 2020 into that so thier forecast was ever sadder in hindsight
pop-punk channel was better...
I miss zellers, now we only have walmart and overpriced-tire.
Love your stuff man! Keep up the good work!
Your case studies and stories are short and sweet and educational. Hope you plan to do more (looks like last update was 5 months ago).
Gonna have to look up "Failed in Canada" haven't heard of this band yet!
It’s melodic Midwest emo with blues influence
@@modernbusinesschannel ngl i really do miss the music recs from themate but i'm here to support you on every modern baseb..business video! 🖤
YES NATES BACK IN MY LIFE WITH A BANGER CHANNEL
I
Miss
Nate
The
Mate
I wanna know why he stopped
I remember going from Minneapolis (Target's HQ) to Winnipeg for a few weeks to work there as an engineer at a company that was moving from Canada to the Twin Cities. I had to be interviewed by secondary immigration to confirm my employment status, contact the company, etc. While in secondary, I saw a lady saying she was moving to Winnipeg to work at a Target, and I thought it was cool that a MN company was coming up north. Man, I feel bad for her now as she lost her job after all the hassle and expense of moving to a new country. I hope she is better now, but she got screwed by Target.
oh mad you got pretty sucessful with this yt channel. you ever gonna return to making video essays about music?
Bro I've been wondering what the hell happened to Nate the mate for several months and turns out I've been subscribed to him unbeknownst for several months 😂
You should really do both we all miss you😢
They failed so bad they left their balls behind...
The Zellers stores were in pretty poor locations as I remember, usually side entrances at failing shopping malls. Target should have selected prime standalone suburban locations to anchor a retail power center as they do in the United States, that's where people prefer to do their shopping. Then the obligatory Ross, Marshalls, higher end fast casual eateries, and a gas station will follow. The revenue for these stores is in places like Mississauga, not downtown Vancouver.
I haven't even watched the video yet, I still wanna say, we had a target open up in our town, I was like "what in the world? I've never heard of target before" and it was there for like 3 years before being turned into a dollarama
The fact that no - as in No One - 'discovered' that Canada is Metric ranks as one of the all-time Great Business Blunders.
That's why space was wasted in the trucks, shipping containers, boxes, and store shelves.
All someone had to do was read a grocery or hardware store flyer to realize that measurements are different in Canada...
Yes they should have opened a few stores to start to test the waters so to speak
Target's move into Canada was doomed from the very beginning. They bought a lacklustre chain of stores (Zellers), and instead of elevating those stores to Target (US) standards, they kept the Zellers standards (and many of the Zellers employees) with a thin veneer of Target signage on the buildings. Canadians expected what you would get in a Target US store (slightly better than Wallyworld) but after just one visit found something slightly worse than Wallyworld at a higher price (or in effect, a Zellers with a different name on it and higher prices).
I hear target has some good clothing and other brands and “collections” in the us but in Canada we never got those. It was literally the same merch as Walmart but more expensive. Other than a curiosity there was never a point to step into the 4-5 stores that opened in my city.
We already have a store where we can get the same stuff as Walmart but more expensive, it’s called Canadian tire, that market is taken
Target Canada issues: stores were half empty most of the time, stock they did have could also be purchased at Wal-mart for cheaper, did not carry any of the brands they sell in US stores, opened way too many stores way too fast, and Target hired an inexperienced clown to run the Canadian operation.
I remember the first time we went there (and the last time) we expect something big with a lot of choices and bargains. The choice was low and the price was higher. I said to my wife : why did they come here to offer us ordinairy stock at a higher price ?
A worker told us to go elsewhere because it was cheaper.
I figured it was a shady tax or real estate shenanigans
A lotta silly things stringed together over a period of a few years
As a card payment software engineer for 20 years I can say that Target self checkout system is a piece of bad things. Both hardware and software. Sensor screens they use look likes they were manufactured back in beginning of 2000-s. Absolutely terrible. Hard to tap what you want. Software is dull like a frog. If you cannot scan a product then searching the product could be a challenging and hard to complete successfully. It's better to cancel the check out and go to a real cashier to buy what you want. In my local Target store 1-2 self checkout devices are always broken and the line to self checkout is huge. Shame on those who developed this system and those who accepted it for installation into Target stores.
What happened with the stores after they declared bankrptcy?
I miss Nate the mate!
Nate the mate. I've found you. Why no uploads on the other channel??
It's crazy that they tried to be all over Canada all at once without building an entire separate "Target Canada" distribution network, without prototyping their entire Canadian process before opening stores to the public.
Substituting the word Customer for Guest just comes off as so fake and typical boxed in corporate thinking. Just makes me wanna roll my eyes so much they fall out.
“Guest” I know right 😂 they’re not guests, they’re people who spend their hard earned money at their store
I’ll tell you the 2 reasons why I hate Subway in the US. Well at least in New York City. Every few weeks, I’m not sure who is responsible, puts out a big sheet of discount coupons for Subway. There is only one problem. There is not one single store left that accepts them. Anytime you go to a Subway here there is a sign that says “No Coupons” on the door or by the register. I’ve never tried on the app to be honest bc those signs can be pretty intimidating. Lastly, I don’t know what you call it. It’s the day of the year when they have buy a footlong get a footlong free. That’s another one that no franchise in NYC participates in, at all anymore. They’ll take our money. Those sandwiches aren’t cheap anymore. A decent sandwich is now around $10-12. They won’t give discounts and won’t even buy you back one free once a year! F Subway they can rot in hell with their rotten bread & vegetables. But I will compliment them on one thing. They’re still better than Blimpies!
Would love to see a video on HUF
Target should have done what you did.... Have video of Jennifer Connelly roller skating through a store on every TV screen!
As a Canadian they had no American products and thats what we wanted, Cherry coke , Vanilla coke , Cereals , Toys , Clothing all the american stuff we didn't want the same shit walmart had
The most principal fact here is, you have a lot of stores like target in Canada
Thoughts on the new story so far record?
This is definitely surprising, considering how huge target is in the United States. Hell there’s even one in my rinky-dink little town here.
Hey Nate do you mind sharing rpm for videos on business like you do? Researched a lot on the internet ,couldn’t get an answer
Looked like prisons with empty shelves
prices were so high Snoop was jealous.
Left, right, and sideways. Do they not know that moving left and right is moving sideways?
To Canadians, or at least to me and my family, Target was "the store with American things in it" when we went to the States, as there are quite a few products in the US that we don't get. Target Canada had none of those.
Like what? It's food, clothes, housewares and electronics. There's one just down the hill from here and I don't perceive it as much different from a grocery store, Walmart, or clothing store. I like it but I don't find anything uniquely American about it.
@tiffanynaidoo2003 That may be so, but we already have Walmart, Safeway/Sobey's, Superstore, and many more. Basically, we saw Target as a way to get products we can't get here. Target Canada gave us nothing we didn't already have.
@@garrettlaturski6703 I really don't know why. Did they market themselves that way? I go to Canada about 3x a year and I can't think of anything off the top of my head that isn't available there. Yes it is more expensive there but Target can't control that. We have Walmart, grocery stores, Marshalls, Auto Zone, Sams Club, Costco, BJs too, it's just another option.
@tiffanynaidoo2003 it's mostly individual random products, such as different flavors of soda, or specific brands of gravy mixes, or bean dip
@@garrettlaturski6703 Ah, okay. Makes sense!
I remember the first time we got one, it was cool for a week
Were the shelves empty?
@@modernbusinesschannel I was 10 at the time, i don’t remember any of the shelves being empty, it was all stocked in my areas store at least. i also remember the hype for it fading quickly and everyone (in my circle at least) were quick to call it a worse walmart. i just think that target market was filled already. had they expanded slowly like you said then theres a chance it could’ve worked long term but walmart is just too similar
I remember zellers, and I barely remember target lmfao
You have to wonder if Walmart had something to do with the problems Target was having in Canada, particularly the hacking issue. I wouldn't put it past Walmart.
I felt so bad for the employees. I still do.
Items that actually arrived at a warehouse couldn't be processed for shipment to an actual store....OHHHH! You mean the warehouse workers gamed the system because their bonuses were tied to how much stick was in the warehouse and how long it was sitting there registering as a full warehouse! Yeah, that's a lot more accurate!
greed and stupidity
Please return to your other channel for the new TSSF album :)
we KNOOW its nate lmao
im so salty about that because thats the reason why i still dont have the Deep cut Amiibo,,, (Target Exclusive)
So you said Target wasn't international before this, right? I live in Australia, and I'm 34. We have always had Target ever since I was a kid. It looks exactly the same, too. So that's weird 😂 it's like a step above k Mart, which we also have had forever. And both do really well.
Sounds wild, but it’s actually a different business. It’s called Target, but it’s a completely separate corporate entity from the U.S. one
That data breach cost my wife 690 dollars taken from her account, which she never got back
Naw man Target didn't deserve their failure in Canada 😭
It's not a failure for the CEO and stockholders. They will allways be paid first with mounds of cash.
No way they released an apology video 😭
At 6:32 you spelled forward wrong. You put froward
I'm stunned how few views this has.
What happened to this guy?
This is another one of those TH-cam channels with zero joy
This video is very similar to one from a channel called PolyMatter on the same subject. They also cite no sources on anything. Idk these videos are far from bad but they feel very profit motivated
Why do you keep saying candida? We are talking about the country Canada and not the fungus right...?
Your Mom
My mom succeeded in Canada
MY MOM!
This will be great
Also, first
Thank you so much! You are first haha
Glad to see ya back after two months fella.
Thank you my dawg