Archived Target pulling out of Canada

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I never had a problem here with Language, being outside of Quebec we were an English Primary store, and so were all of our guests. Of course a lot of us can speak French if need be, but it was understood that the general communication was to be done in English.

Work today is a little hard, not by anything company side but by the Guests. If i hear another Guest remind me of how i just lost my job, how i should give them a discount because "no one will care", or how it was their first time in Target ever because they just wanted to "see" i think i might break down.

As i said before, the Guest is what is making this so difficult. They have no idea the difficulty it is putting on my team, and that just because we are closing it does not mean that i wont come behind you and fix all the tables you unfold and chuck to the side or the aisles you put all your abandons down in because "its too far to walk back".
 
Kaz said:
I never had a problem here with Language, being outside of Quebec we were an English Primary store, and so were all of our guests. Of course a lot of us can speak French if need be, but it was understood that the general communication was to be done in English.

Work today is a little hard, not by anything company side but by the Guests. If i hear another Guest remind me of how i just lost my job, how i should give them a discount because "no one will care", or how it was their first time in Target ever because they just wanted to "see" i think i might break down.

As i said before, the Guest is what is making this so difficult. They have no idea the difficulty it is putting on my team, and that just because we are closing it does not mean that i wont come behind you and fix all the tables you unfold and chuck to the side or the aisles you put all your abandons down in because "its too far to walk back".
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I've worked at stores when they went out of business and the customers always make it hard.
The most recent was at the big box book store.

People would come up and say:
"This isn't all that cheap, when are the real discounts going to happen?"
"Why isn't there more stuff here?"

Even though we had great big signs saying ALL SALES FINAL!
"If my mom doesn't like this can she return it?"
Well she can try to bring it in to the baby clothes store or the Halloween Costume Shop that will probably be here but don't surprised if they don't take it.

We also sold the fixtures, shelves, tables, etc.
"Would you help me get this on my truck?"
Not unless you want to pay me a lot more than I'm getting paid as a bookseller.

"Boy, I'm sorry your going to be gone. Haven't been here for years but sure will miss it."
Which explains why we will be gone.

And like you said, the almost constant, "Well, what are you going to now?"
Besides get through this fucking day? Why, are you going to give me a job?

Good luck man.
 
This is an interesting article that suggests one of Targets biggest mistakes was actually letting the competition know exactly which stores they were taking over almost two years before they actually opened the stores.
This gave the competition time to plan and make plans in terms of how the would deal with having a Target in their neighborhood.
It's an unique take, not sure if I agree 100% but it makes some good points.


http://business.financialpost.com/2...d-reveal-contributed-to-its-demise-in-canada/
 
I too worked at the book store and the liquidation process was awful. My favorite moment was like Day 2, I was called to the Register because a customer wanted to speak to the manager about an order he placed but would not be able to get as it was cancelled. He demanded to speak to my District and Regional Manager. "I'm sorry Sir, they were let go yesterday. I am the only Manager you can speak too." He left in a huff.

There will be many hard days ahead but just try to keep your chin up and it will get easier, the farther through the process you go, it gets easier.
 
pscidude2010 said:
I too worked at the book store and the liquidation process was awful. My favorite moment was like Day 2, I was called to the Register because a customer wanted to speak to the manager about an order he placed but would not be able to get as it was cancelled. He demanded to speak to my District and Regional Manager. "I'm sorry Sir, they were let go yesterday. I am the only Manager you can speak too." He left in a huff.

There will be many hard days ahead but just try to keep your chin up and it will get easier, the farther through the process you go, it gets easier.
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I loved the ones who were demanding they get a latte.
"Tell you what, I'll sell you a 10 lb bag of beans and a bottle of vanilla syrup.
Go home and make your own.
 
ETL19TT said:
@Kaz so are u from the U.S. and has a position been offered to you in the future ?what does the out look for us etls in the United states ?
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No i was a new ETL directly from Canada. Never had any ties to the US.

As per ETLs in the US, you guys are business as usual as far as i can tell.
 
When I owned a business I hated to see customers pull out an Amex card.. Amex charged merchants 5% or more, while most MasterCard and Visa were less than 2%. Discover was even lower - never could figure out why other businesses said Discover was "too expensive" when I tried to use my Discover card.
 
It is a sign of just how bad Target has gotten that a company that has long been in trouble like Sears can survive in Canada while Target had to run away with its tail between its legs.
 
I've seen some complaints about the amount of cameras in the store... man people complain about anything!
 
daninnj said:
I've seen some complaints about the amount of cameras in the store... man people complain about anything!
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Well you do have to realize that Canada is a different country with different ways of doing things. lots of stores do have actual people to do AP.
 
Bosch said:
Well you do have to realize that Canada is a different country with different ways of doing things. lots of stores do have actual people to do AP.
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Yeah, I knew that. I guess Target didn't. Maybe they should have had discreeter cameras.
 
RedDog said:
It is a sign of just how bad Target has gotten that a company that has long been in trouble like Sears can survive in Canada while Target had to run away with its tail between its legs.
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Before we opened, someone compared the amount of cameras to a casino.
 
TiedAndDropped said:
When I owned a business I hated to see customers pull out an Amex card.. Amex charged merchants 5% or more, while most MasterCard and Visa were less than 2%. Discover was even lower - never could figure out why other businesses said Discover was "too expensive" when I tried to use my Discover card.
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When my parents, owned there own business, they noticed that when you all up all the little hidden fees from Visa & MC (swipe fees, data transfer fees, etc) amex really wasn't all that more expensive in the long run. Discover Card, costs about the same as Amex, and Visa is supposedly the cheapest of them all.

One of the things about an Amex card, is if your not happy with anything you purchase, you can call them up and dispute the charge, and it just get's taken off. It's the reason I pay my annual fee every year, without even thinking about it. I know I can purchase something, and I get scammed, or, just get crap, I won't have to worry about it.

I had a Dell Computer, that wouldn't start Windows, out of the box. I called them countless times, asking for a RMA label, and a replacement, and kept getting the run around. One phone call to american express, and they took the charge off my statement, and told me to keep it.

I typically won't shop at Places that don't accept American Express, just because of that exact, reason. If they can't pay .5 or .10 cents more to process a transaction, what does that say about the "product" there selling. Do you really think it's going to be the best thing ever, if they can't splurge .5 cents to take a payment? Or are they going to cut corners anyway possible to make a profit? That's my mindset, and I think that's the mindset of a lot of Card Members.

I do have a Visa Card, I do have a Mastercard, and hell, I even just opened a Discover Card. And sure... I could just, grab one of them, and swipe it, and move on. But, still. I can't get that mindset out of my head, and I think a lot of others have the same idea, as well.
 
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daninnj said:
I've seen some complaints about the amount of cameras in the store... man people complain about anything!
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I guess they were upset, when they realized that it was going to be much harder to shoplift than it used to be at Zellers. :p

(Keep in Mind, Zellers, wasn't exactly famous for having good security...)
 
Bosch said:
Target doesn't do discrete they want you guess which ones are fake. Security theater.. Better than actual security.
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That's definitely the strategy at my store, at least in the stockroom. There's a camera dome on every single aisle. They can't all be real.
 
The Dude Abides said:
One of our domes was broken in an aisle in the backroom for like six months. Needless to say we all know there is no camera in that one.
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We are missing a couple back there as well and after being questioned when something went missing and I told them check the film and they told me there wasn't film I knew a few more domes are fake.
 
HardlinesFour said:
I typically won't shop at Places that don't accept American Express, just because of that exact, reason. If they can't pay .5 or .10 cents more to process a transaction, what does that say about the "product" there selling. Do you really think it's going to be the best thing ever, if they can't splurge .5 cents to take a payment? Or are they going to cut corners anyway possible to make a profit? That's my mindset, and I think that's the mindset of a lot of Card Members.
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Total ticket at my business was often more than $1000, which at Amex's 5% is $50 out of my pocket, as opposed to $20 or so for Visa/MC.

I will admit that in the last few years I had that business Visa/MC merchant rates started going up. They would charge me 1.79% on "standard" cards, but cards were increasingly 'non-standard' - meaning they gave airline miles, or a % cash back. Trouble was, you had no idea what your transaction cost was going to be until you got the merchant services report at the end of the month.

I really didn't mind paying 2%. The card companies took the risk that the customer might be a deadbeat. I did the work and got paid, less a small percentage, and the card companies took care of any hassles. At 5% I started to mind.

By the way, the percentage businesses are charged varies with average ticket size. If your average ticket is $2.50 you get charged a much higher percentage than if your average is $250, which I had.
 
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