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Yes, we’ve all heard that Target Canada is leaving the country. Anybody who had the misfortune of wandering the empty aisles full of empty shelves in empty strip malls isn’t that surprised. Blame it on bad management, distribution issues, and poor research, but it ultimately doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Target Canada actively lured employees away from other companies with the promise of long-term careers and higher salaries. And now, because of their incompetence, 17,000 Canadians are going to be out a job in the very near future — if not already.
As noted on the Huffington Post, this will have catastrophic effects for smaller communities that saw the arrival of Target as a godsend. Add insult to injury with American CEO Gregg Steinhafel’s severance exceeding the entire package given to all 17,000 Canadian employees and you can’t help but have a terrible taste in your mouth. Quite frankly, we’re gagging.
If you do want to play the blame game, you can look at the poorly-restocked shelves and lacklustre marketing. Was there a point to inviting American celebrities –like comedian Ross Matthews– to Canada to attract attention? Do Canadians really care about Ross Matthews? Furthermore, the company spent over $2 billion plopping Targets in old Zellers locations without doing enough demographic and neighbourhood research. If Zellers didn’t do well in those locations, why would Target do exceptionally better? Also, where was the e-commerce site? This country is frozen half the year; we love to online shop.
We are not Americans. Canadians will never be Americans. While we were excited for Target to come north, we are also historically mistrustful of large-scale foreign invasions — corporate, cultural, or otherwise. They tried with the War of 1812, it didn’t exactly pan out then either. Companies like IKEA, which came in slowly and expanded organically, continue to profit because they took the time to understand Canadians and what we want.
So, why should you not be shopping the Target Canada closing sale? Because it will take huge employee numbers to manage the sale — employees who will be overworked in the face of dwindling worker numbers as more and more people just stop showing up. Basically, Target Canada plans on working their employees to the bone before dropping them – and, by osmosis, their communities. Sorry, but we can’t support that.
If you’re boycotting the Target Canada Sale, let us know why in the comments below or tweet us @ViewTheVibe.