Target to pull out of Canada
NEWS — Target will pull out of Canada after just two years.
That includes the Kamloops store and more than 132 other Target sites in the country. The stores have lost money ever since they opened — almost $1 billion in their first year.
In happier times, Target staff welcomed shoppers on opening day. (KDN photo)
About 17,600 employees will be out of work.
“After a thorough review of our Canadian performance and careful consideration of the implications of all options, we were unable to find a realistic scenario that would get Target Canada to profitability until at least 2021,” said the U.S. parent company’s CEO Brian Cornell in a press release today, Thursday.
“The Target Canada team has worked tirelessly to improve the fundamentals, fix operations and build a deeper relationship with our guests. We hoped that these efforts in Canada would lead to a successful holiday season, but we did not see the required step-change in our holiday performance,” said Cornell.
“There is no doubt that the next several weeks will be difficult, but we will make every effort to handle our exit in an appropriate and orderly way.”
An application was granted in Toronto today for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The stores will stay open during liquidation.
The Kamloops Target store opened in May 2013, two years after it was first announced, and on the same day as nine other stores in B.C., 11 in Alberta and three in Manitoba. It took over more than 100 Zellers outlets including the one in Kamloops.
Two hundred people were hired for the Kamloops store. The opening of the Target store gave a boost to Sahali Mall, which brought other merchants to the mall.
In addition to its Canadian stores, Target operates almost 1,800 stores in the U.S.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Thoughts and prayers go out to the present employees of the Target store in Kamloops and elsewhere. In regards to the Kamloops situation, we have in the past lost the K-Mart and Zeller’s. Sad day indeed, when a person wakes up in the morning to out that his or her job is gone. Especially cruel, when one finds out through the news media from Eastern Canada. One wonders what the ownership of the Sahali Mall will now do to fill the big hole in the Mall.
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