Target opened 133 stores in Canada. Two years later, all 133 closed.
In 2011, Target paid C$1.825 billion for up to 220 Zellers store leases. Empty stores still cost rent, so the plan was to open 124 in 2013, all running on a new SAP system.
Roughly 75,000 products had to be entered, including dimensions, weights and packing details. During preparations, an internal team estimated that the data was correct about 30% of the time, Canadian Business reported. In the US, it was 98% to 99%.
The first stores opened on March 5, 2013. Shoppers soon complained about empty shelves. By fall, Target's three Canadian warehouses were overflowing.
In January 2015, new CEO Brian Cornell announced the exit: 133 stores, about 17,600 employees and about US$5.4 billion of expected pre-tax losses on discontinued operations. "Personally, this was a very difficult decision, but it was the right decision for our company," he said.
The leases put a cost on waiting, and the opening schedule set the deadline for the SAP rollout. That is the detail to take into any review before an ERP launch (the software that runs orders and stock): the stores opened while the data needed to keep them stocked was still unreliable.
AI-generated illustration with narration by an AI voice.
Target
What the captions say
- This is the story of how Target opened 133 stores in Canada, and closed them all about two years after the first.
- Target was a $70 billion American giant. In Canada, it wanted to grow fast.
- In 2011, chief executive Gregg Steinhafel paid about C$1.8 billion for up to 220 store leases from a Canadian chain, Zellers.
- Empty stores still cost rent. So Target planned 124 openings in 2013.
- New SAP software would track each product's size, weight and packing. Staff typed it all in.
- That meant 75,000 products. A former employee told the magazine Canadian Business nobody told the young staff it had to be right.
- Inches went in where centimetres belonged. An internal team estimated the data was right only 30% of the time.
- On March 5, 2013, the first stores opened, and shoppers soon complained about empty shelves. By fall, Target's three warehouses were overflowing.
- In February 2014, Target reported a loss in Canada of US$941 million. By May, Steinhafel had stepped down.
- His successor, Brian Cornell, toured stores in Ontario in January 2015. The shelves were full. The customers were few. On January 15, he announced Target's exit from Canada.
- By April, all 133 stores had closed. Roughly 17,600 people were out of work. Target expected pre-tax losses of about US$5.4 billion.
- Cornell said, "Personally, this was a very difficult decision, but it was the right decision for our company."
