TGT Anxiety and the Future of Retail

[Roadmap2Retire]

(05-20-2015, 09:53 PM)Dividend Watcher Wrote:

(01-15-2015, 09:09 AM)Roadmap2Retire Wrote: Wow! Im not surprised. Nobody liked Target here in Canada. When they came in, Canadians were excited thinking that we would see US-style pricing, which was no where to by found.

R2R, can you expound upon this? Did you expect rock-bottom pricing just because it was TGT? I'm also not familiar with the corporate tax situation in Canada vs. the US. I wouldn't think there would be a difference in GST/HST either. I'm really baffled.

When I used to visit TO & MTL a lot, I used to peruse the shopping mecca's just to see new-to-me product lines and didn't see merchandising too out of whack with what I see locally. Maybe I was distracted by the French-Canadian women ( oooh-la-la ) strolling down Rue St. Catherine in the warmer weather.

Of course, we also don't have a Timmie's or Canadian Tire on every corner either.

DW,
I am not much of a consumer, so I dont really shop in places like WMT or TGT, but I do like to observe. Before TGT came to Canada, there were wild expectations that WMT and TGT will get into a fight to the bottom and consumers will benefit, even though there was evidence from the media that TGT will not be able to do that here (see this article from 2012). I think the rationale was that the import taxes imposed by Canada will not allow for rock bottom prices and consumers can expect more of the same. For whatever reason, consumers still expected better pricing and were disappointed after the doors opened.

Heres an article that lists lots of reasons on why TGT failed in Canada. The execution was very poorly done from what Ive read and observed - TGT bought Zellers, a Canadian chain and announced that they will convert them years in advance...their whole plan/strategy was laid out. This allowed the competition plenty of time to come up with their own strategy to combat Target's entry. So, even before the Target name went up on the stores, the competition was taking customers away. This is what I meant when I said "Target's experience will serve as a case study for plenty of other firms in the future."

Those French-Canadian girls sure are distracting It sure was one of the highlights of my time when I lived in Montreal.

Speaking of Cdn Tire, they've really grown by leaps and bounds lately. In the last two years, they are everywhere. I havent looked at the financials in a while, and needs a closer look.