What will become of the Pointe- Claire Target store?
It’ ll be interesting to see who’ll take over the property on Hymus Blvd.
Last Saturday was Valentine’s Day, and my son and his girlfriend celebrated with takeout from Mozza restaurant on StCharles Blvd. While this may not seem traditional, it is a sign of the times. They ordered online and went to pick up a delicious meal ( I snuck a couple of bites) of tortellini and pizza. They did not have to wait to be served or warm up a freezing car after a nice meal.
While takeout is a sideline for Mozza, there is something to be said for the takeout model. It requires a lot less investment, fewer employees to manage, and less paperwork. Owning a retail establishment is a major undertaking.
Whenever I take a walk downtown, I am amazed at how many clothing stores, restaurants and coffee shops there are. Often, many of the stores seem empty. How do they survive?
Many of them don’t. Just recently, Jacob ( 92 stores), Sony ( 14 stores), Mexx ( 95 stores) and Target ( 133 stores) announced they were closing their Canadian operations.
Target is probably the biggest shock. Canadians had high hopes for Target, and looked forward eagerly to a great shopping experience and lower prices for higher quality items. “Expect more, pay less,” right? Instead, they found empty shelves, and those muchanticipated deals never materialized.
Disappointed customers are not repeat customers. In two years, Target lost $ 2.1 billion and was not forecast to make a profit until 2021.
Target Canada spent more time acquiring and renovating stores than it did operating them. In 2011, Target acquired 189 Zellers locations and in March 2013, it opened its first Canadian location. The store in Pointe- Claire opened at the end of 2013, and operated a little more than a year before being turned over to court- supervised liquidators.
Target’s very name and its bull’s- eye logo are ironic as Target clearly missed the mark. Its Canadian legacy is to be the fodder of discussion for MBA students as they analyze what went wrong.
Maybe Target tried to do too much too quickly. Perhaps they underestimated the competition. Maybe there was too much hype. Or was it just a series of mistakes in a challenging economic environment?
Whatever the case, the sad reality is that 17,600 employees will be out of work. Not since Nortel have so many lost their jobs. There will be a toll as well on Target’s suppliers.
It will be interesting to see what will happen with the property on Hymus Blvd. at St- Jean. It is a little too big for a takeout joint, but maybe it won’t be another big- box store. If it is, maybe the logo should be a colour other than red, and hopefully, unlike Target, former employees would be hired back.