Do you think Target Canada demonstrated good planning with regard to its expansion into Canada? Identify at least three things the company did (right or wrong) to support your answer. .
Target is a well-known American corporation founded in 1902 by George Dayton. In 2013, Target opened 124 stores in Canada after buying Zellers Inc. Target was one of the successful leading retail stores in America; however operating the company in Canada did not produce successful results. Firstly, the week before opening the other seventeen stores, the media reported on the three Target pilot stores that opened a couple weeks ago. Target customers complained on social media about empty shelves. "We definitely were slammed," states Morioka, senior vice-president of merchandising for Target Canada. (p.190). One of Target's plan was to always have shelves full of items as Fisher ordered but did not keep their word and let their customers down. Secondly, customers have complained about higher prices in Canadian Target stores compared to the U.S Target stores. Fisher explained that retail prices are slightly higher in Canada for a number of reasons, including a less competitive marketplace, higher transportation costs, higher wage rates, and duties. (p.190) The only factor that satisfies customers are low prices, and since Canadian Target store prices are high, customers tend to lose interest in buying products at Target, they rather shop at other retail stores such as Walmart. I think Target should have started off by selling products for cheaper price to attract customers then gradually increased the prices afterwards. Last but not the least, the competition got stronger among all the retail stores in the marketplace once Target stepped into Canada. The other retail stores started reducing their prices to divert costumers into not buying products from Target. Fisher believed that Target coming to Canada will force the other retailers to become more competitive, benefiting customers in Canada.
