Mark Dayton
Posted on 12/25/2007 8:53:02 AM PST by rhema
It was supposed to be a Target Christmas.
Buffeted by high energy costs and a slowing housing market, consumers were expected to trade down from mid-priced department stores, like Macy's and Nordstrom, to discount retailers with designer cachet - Target's undisputed terrain.
But instead of dominating this holiday season, Target is muddling through it, perplexing rival merchants and Wall Street analysts, who consider the chain a bellwether and are scrutinizing its performance for clues on the health of the economy.
In two of the past three months - September and November - Target's sales growth has slipped below 1.5 percent, well under its historical average and lower than its biggest rival, Wal-Mart Stores.
Target's chief executive Target, Robert Ulrich, has warned the company may not meet its earnings forecast for the final three months of the year, on the heels of a third-quarter performance he described as "disappointing."
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Many others are reporting excellent sales... but that will never get reported..
Target is much tougher to deal with than Walmart. I am sympathetic with retailers wanting to keep their customers from returning things willy-nilly, but you must meet the competition. Given a choice, I always opt for Walmart due to this single reason.
It could be those Target TV ads. I saw those ads for 6-months before I realized they wanted me to shop at a Target store.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHNpHisPUf8
Slow economy.......... I keep hearing that. What’s the difference in this economy and the “great” economy that saw Slick Willy get re-elected in 1996? The MSM, paving the way for a Clinton since 1992.
Agreed. Part of Target’s problem is that they want to sell faux designer stuff. You can’t get a shower curtain liner under $20, decent contact paper and there is a minimal selection of laundry detergents. This is the stuff that drives the discounters.
If I want to buy a sweater, I am going to go to Macy’s, Nordstrom, etc. The only reason I’d get one at Target is if I saw it in passing while purchasing the other stuff.
Since I go to other stores for the shower curtain liner (usually under $10), etc. and I’ll purchase clothes at other stores too.
Mark Dayton
I’m with you there, JLS. Wal-Mart will take anything and everything back, with or without a recipt. But there is one thing I like at Target more than Wal-Mart. Target stores are very clean and neat.
Slow economy??? Just last week they reported economic growth of 4.9%! What slow economy?
Target is well known for its pro homo - anti Christian promotions. Why should they expect people (IE Christians) to be insulted where they shop?
My reasoning too.
Commercials like this are precisely why I had my cable disconnected. They just make you crazy.
FYI, two neighbors told me in mid-November that they and many others in their church refuse to shop at Target and Sears due to their continued out of fashion insistence of boycotting the use of the word Christmas while most other retailers, politicians, etc have reversed position on that PC silliness. Perhaps THAT is why store traffic has dropped at Target....but I suppose they aren’t even thinking about looking into that conundrum
Unfortunately, the MSM still has the ability to say something over and over and thereby get it out into the public consciousness. It worked in Iraq for a good while, and it seems to be working in the public’s view of the econooy.
If you want a really slow economy, elect a Democrat president.
In 2005, Target kicked out the Salvation Army bell ringers, too. I wonder if they changed that.
I’ve been in Target stores twice. I can’t believe I went the second time, because after my first visit, I decided that I would never need to go again.
Yes, a total disconnect.
Target has a Merry Christmas prominently displayed in one local store here.
Christmas is obviously a Christian holiday. But what percentage of Americans today identify with a Christian religion?
About 82% of Americans in 2007 told Gallup interviewers that they identified with a Christian religion. That includes 51% who said they were Protestant, 5% who were “other Christian,” 23% Roman Catholic, and 3% who named another Christian faith, including 2% Mormon.
I don’t know what it is about Target..They are spaced and clean but I just go there for sales. I just like Walmart better. Speaking of which , Walmart closed at 5:30 yesterday and won’t open until tomorrow.
In two of the past three months - September and November - Target's sales growth has slipped below 1.5 percent, well under its historical average and lower than its biggest rival, Wal-Mart Stores.
I knew there was some reason to be Merry this Christmas. I discontinued patronage of both Target and Best Buy when they barred the Salvation Army bell ringers from their entrances. (I did consider going to Target this year for my gay apparel. I know the selection is better there.)
----
Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com
And my wife drives past Target to get to Kohl's. Something about that 15% re-usable discount card she gets each season, and nobody is disappointed with is in the box.
Maybe there weren't as many people affected by high energy costs and a slowing housing market as were expect, did you ever think of that Mr. St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Indeed, exactly who was doing the "expecting"? Could it beeeeeeee.....the mainstream media? Hmmmmmmmm?
I agree with your comment. Recently, I had to return a gift without a receipt. The “customer service” employee treated me like dirt. I insisted on talking to the manager and he treated me even worse. They only let me exchange the gift with something from the same department. The gift came from the girls department but my daughter wears teens sizes. Now I will only go to Target if there is no other option. They lost out on my Christmas budget this year. Last Christmas I spent about $600 there, this year they got about $55 from me.
And that's when I kicked Target out...
End of story...
For inexpensive clothing for kids and teens, we go to Old Navy a few times per year
Don’t lose Hobby Lobby’s receipt if you shop there. They will NOT give you a full refund for a purchase if you do not have a receipt. Without a receipt they give you HALF the price you paid which is a bunch of Bull sh$t! I don’t shop there as much as I used to for that reason.
Only in the socialist MSM would GROWTH be reported as a negative event.
That needs to be repeated.
Walmart has enough leverage with the producers of their merchandise that they can take a returned item and 'gently' force the manufacturer to take it back.
There's no way they're going to allow their product to be removed from Walmart's shelves.
Hardly. In the world of financial expectations, any slippage below expectation is a negative event. Nothing political involved. It can't be any other way in any system which asset valuation occurs in the market. Valuations of assets are based on expectations. In general across all kinds of industries, 3-4% growth would be the median expected level. 1.5% is horrible.
Regarding stock prices, there is often a "whisper number" for earnings higher than the official forecast. When that number is missed, share prices can fall even though the official number was "beat".
And their signs are entirely in English.
Our entire Wal-Mart ad section today is bilingual. English followed by Spanish. Scratch them off my list. Actually, they were scratched off long ago.
And they do NOT:
Behead customers who complain
Allow cannibalism to be practiced in the store
Allow clerks to use their bull-whips on customers (they have another purpose)
Have any wolverines or diamond back rattlesnakes in the store (except for special occasions and rituals)
You can clearly see that they aim to please.
That's the deciding point for my dear old mother. I'd say she spends about 4 dollars at WalMart for every dollar she spends at Target.Is that called spending?...I didn't knowMainly because if she's dissatisfied or decides she doesn't need some item, at WalMart she walks up to customer service with the item and receipt...and the WalMart folks just hand her the purchase price back in cash.
Yesterday at Walmart, I left a bag of groceries. The clerk chased me down in the parking lot and brought it to my car. The door greeter wished me a Merry Christmas. She was the only one this year.
Even if you don’t have the receipt they give you a gift card with the purchase amount. I’ve never had any trouble returning stuff. Now if you leave your cell phone and go to reclaim it you better have 10 ids and a picture of it:’)
After booting the Salvation Army, Target lost me as a customer.
Maybe I wasn’t the only boycotter after all.
Perhaps if they dried their tears and concentrated on customer service, they wouldn't have "negative growth" because of only "over 1% increase".....sob, sob, boo-hoo.
The fastest projectile on God's earth is the middle-aged, short-legged lady clerk in K-Mart who sees you coming out of the corner of her eye.......and quickly turns a corner and disappears, never to be seen again even though you were only 5 paces behind her.
Leni
Wife had me stop at Target for her. They didn’t have a bell ringer from the Salvation Army so I went elsewhere.
That is part of the reason why so many are NOT shopping Target, including me.
This is yet another reason why people don't shop Target.
When buying just about anything, if Walmart has it, then that's where I buy it. The price is always right and I know I can take it back if it's not right.
I was in a Walmart check-out line recently and the senior citizen lady ahead of me was checking out groceries. Walmart guarantees lowest prices on groceries, so she handed the clerk a spiral notebook page with a list of items and their prices at other grocery stores.
The clerk didn't even bat an eye and keyed in the items at the prices the lady had on the list.
When my turn came up, I asked the clerk about that list, because she could have just made those prices up.
The clerk said losing a dollar or two is nowhere near as bad as losing a customer.
Right now I'm thinking that I'm about the only one who didn't already know that.
Typical fake bad news story from our sources of fake information. Sales grew at 1.5% yet that’s “slow”.
Compared to the overall retail average of 3.6% it is more than "slow," it's actually rather pathetic.
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