Lack of inventory at the stores due to the computers not being able to talk to each other is what killed Target Canada. The same inventory problem is happening now in US Target stores
Interesting. I have been in 3 Target stores in the past 4 days in the San Jose, CA area looking for pet food. two stores were out completely and the 3rd had 1 package. I also shopped for food and noticed bare shelves and empty freezers. They were out of most bread but no problem with soft drinks though. I suspect that those vendors track and stock that themselves. I was wondering what was going on and this may be the explanation. Worrisome as it is not rocket science. I learned how to calculate the appropriate reorder point and the optimal reorder quantity in Biz school in the mid 80’s.
Target also gave the impression that customers would receive the same Target experience they had known when visiting the States, like getting Target exclusive products. Canada’s bilingual laws made this impossible because too many manufacturers weren’t willing to change their labels to comply with the law, so a lot of products that would have sold here couldn’t be brought.
Another thing they did that screwed themselves over was that they were in such a hurry to open big is that they opened twice the number of stores than they probably should have, requiring them to maintain an unrealistic level of sales to maintain.
A third factor that killed Target in Canada was that Canadian retailers outright mauled them. Wherever there was a Target, retailers surrounding their nearby stores to drop their prices and allowed those stores to lose money. So, while select Wal-marts, or Canadian Tire, or Home Depot or whatever store would lose money, every Target was guaranteed to lose money.