The Energon Pub

I went to Target today to look at all the empty shelves (not a new concept for them) and thought of just taking pictures to mark an end to the experiment. The big liquidations will begin this thursday.

We will start with the Dilapidated Transformers shelf

ill be hittin up the electronics for sure.

Clearance starts today.

I'm not too worried as my local store sold thru any TF's I cared about after New Years, but hopefully there are a few stores with stuff you are looking for.

Editor wrote:Clearance starts today.

I'm not too worried as my local store sold thru any TF's I cared about after New Years, but hopefully there are a few stores with stuff you are looking for.

You should still take a look. I went today and found the recent generations combiner wars Legends there. WTF?! And they were all 20% off.

Never said I wasn't going to look...

I'll hit my local on the way home, but i'll be lucky to get there before 7PM.

Wal-Mart plans 340 million dollar expansion in Canada!

The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, February 11, 2015 6:29AM EST
Last Updated Wednesday, February 11, 2015 11:17AM EST
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -

Wal-Mart Canada says it plans to expand seven stores and open two new ones this fiscal year.
The retailer will also convert 20 of its stores into supercentres by adding a grocery section.
Wal-Mart Canada estimates the cost at $230 million, with an additional investment of $75 million to expand its distribution network and $35 million on on e-commerce initiatives.

Wal-Mart Canada says it plans to complete another 29 supercentre projects, an expansion that is expected to generate about 3,700 construction jobs, 1,000 store jobs and 300 distribution centre jobs across Canada.
The news comes after U.S.-based retailer Target announced it is pulling out of Canada and will be shutting down all 133 of its Canadian stores.
Target acquired the leases from retailer Zellers back in 2010 and has said it will work with an advisor to sell them.
The expansion will bring Wal-Mart Canada's store count to 396 by the end of January, 2016, consisting of 309 supercentres and 87 discount stores.

What I'm unclear about, is whether or not they'll be snatching up the brand new (and newly abandoned) Target stores?

You would kind of expect that even if they had these plans already developed prior to Targets announcement that they are now looking at the assets Target is leaving behind and analyzing any options available near the places they plan to open.

After all the warehouse/distribution centres if located in good spots could save them time and energy instead of building from scratch.

shajaki wrote:What I'm unclear about, is whether or not they'll be snatching up the brand new (and newly abandoned) Target stores?

I suspect they won't be snatching up the Target stores - one of Target's issues was they simply rented and/or conformed to existing properties and retail spaces rather than investing in their own real estate. I doubt Wal-Mart will be making the same mistake.

megatronus wrote:

shajaki wrote:What I'm unclear about, is whether or not they'll be snatching up the brand new (and newly abandoned) Target stores?

I suspect they won't be snatching up the Target stores - one of Target's issues was they simply rented and/or conformed to existing properties and retail spaces rather than investing in their own real estate. I doubt Wal-Mart will be making the same mistake.

thanks!
i had no idea. to me, it seems like such a waste... all those newly renovated stores, who wouldnt want to snatch them up? but youre totally right. walmart is an owner, not a renter. hell, they rent walmart space to others!

i have an (ex-brother-in-law) who's a walmart manager. they buy a giant-ass lot, and not only rent out spots within the store, but minimalls surrounding walmart pay rent (cause walmart obviously owns em). and with that, they essentially have all their taxes paid off every year.

shajaki wrote:

megatronus wrote:

shajaki wrote:What I'm unclear about, is whether or not they'll be snatching up the brand new (and newly abandoned) Target stores?

I suspect they won't be snatching up the Target stores - one of Target's issues was they simply rented and/or conformed to existing properties and retail spaces rather than investing in their own real estate. I doubt Wal-Mart will be making the same mistake.

thanks!
i had no idea. to me, it seems like such a waste... all those newly renovated stores, who wouldnt want to snatch them up? but youre totally right. walmart is an owner, not a renter. hell, they rent walmart space to others!

i have an (ex-brother-in-law) who's a walmart manager. they buy a giant-ass lot, and not only rent out spots within the store, but minimalls surrounding walmart pay rent (cause walmart obviously owns em). and with that, they essentially have all their taxes paid off every year.

You got it!

Also, intriguing...

From a customer POV their closing sucks all kind of S### but I have to admit I am looking forward to seeing how things shake down for all the Target locations.

Lets face it there is a very small list of companies in play that could seriously consider taking over complete store footprints:
Wal-Mart
Loblaws/Superstore/Joe Fresh
Canadian Tire Especially well placed urban locations for their newer urban concept stores
IKEA more possible then some may believe, They have been looking at expanding with "smaller" stores in communities they don't have locations. Some smaller Targets may fit their needs
Best Buy/Future Shop while it could be appealing to them to open one of each store in places they haven't locations, (and yes it is part of their corporate strategy to put one of each close to each other to be their own competition) it's unlikely as they even the malls with both they try to put a small distance between them
Simons They seems to be in an expanding mood
HBC Highly unlikely
Sears yhea right
Leon's/The Brick They've taken over large footprints before.
Cabalas/Bass Pro could work in the right communities

A bunch will undoubtedly be completely redeveloped to sell space in malls to smaller tenants, or possibly as seen at a few malls around here be replaced by an office or condo tower.

There is a rumour kicking around my Strata, that the owner of the adjoining property (currently a Toys'r'Us & Dollarama) may be looking to build a tower complex, if this is real, I hope that TRU will be looking at part of the space Target is vacating.

If anyone hears what's happening with the Targets in their neck of the woods, post it here. If only because I'll find it interesting.

william-james88 wrote:I went to Target today to look at all the empty shelves (not a new concept for them) and thought of just taking pictures to mark an end to the experiment. The big liquidations will begin this thursday.

We will start with the Dilapidated Transformers shelf

Doesn't look much different than the still very much open American Targets in my area. Actually that's how most stores' around here TF sections have looked since Christmas.

william-james88 wrote:

I can't get over how there's a BH Soundwave (who's long since outstayed his welcome) alongside Tailgate (who've I've never seen in my area) alongside all that empty space, and this being only a few weeks ago. Very surreal.

Optimum Supreme wrote:Doesn't look much different than the still very much open American Targets in my area. Actually that's how most stores' around here TF sections have looked since Christmas.

Yeah, my Target's been RiD - AoE junk - empty spot for CW for a while now.
But as far as I can tell, the rest of it doesn't appear to be in a perpetual state of going out of business.

Well...i'm bummed about them folding. Shopping there sucked but i got transformers there generally at the same time the waves were released in the states.

As for saying how wonderfull Toys are Us is and Walmart in regards to delivering the waves on time. ALL the toys r us and walmart stores in my town and beyond are still selling Beast Hunters and AOE stuff and havent restocked the shelves since summer. It's abysmal.

I'm getting really tired at having to order figures online paying American prices with a really crappy Canadian dollar and massively high shipping and handleing.


Canada or at least my hometown SUCKS so bad at keeping up with the latest releases it was refreshing for a store like Target that kept up with the waves to come to my town.

MGrotusque wrote:Well...i'm bummed about them folding. Shopping there sucked but i got transformers there generally at the same time the waves were released in the states.

As for saying how wonderfull Toys are Us is and Walmart in regards to delivering the waves on time. ALL the toys r us and walmart stores in my town and beyond are still selling Beast Hunters and AOE stuff and havent restocked the shelves since summer. It's abysmal.

I'm getting really tired at having to order figures online paying American prices with a really crappy Canadian dollar and massively high shipping and handleing.


Canada or at least my hometown SUCKS so bad at keeping up with the latest releases it was refreshing for a store like Target that kept up with the waves to come to my town.

Yeah, its the same all around. But at least TRU.com has stuff eventually. Like right now, it has [url-http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=57276806]Silverbolt[/url], and you'd get him shipped for free, so its like getting him in a store, no need for craz exchange rates.

Platinum Starscreamis also on clearance for those who care.

shajaki wrote:i wonder what this means for target USA? they lost a lot of money coming to Canada only to walk away from it all... would there be any kind of ripple effect?

Well in the USA state of Minnesota. "The birthplace of Target." We had to lay off a lot of managers in the corporate offices and lay off a lot of retail store staff as well. These lay offs are the human medical surgery equivalent of amputating some limbs in order to save a person's life. Our Canadian adventure had hurt us more the helped us.

Towline wrote:

shajaki wrote:i wonder what this means for target USA? they lost a lot of money coming to Canada only to walk away from it all... would there be any kind of ripple effect?

Well in the USA state of Minnesota. "The birthplace of Target." We had to lay off a lot of managers in the corporate offices and lay off a lot of retail store staff as well. These lay offs are the human medical surgery equivalent of amputating some limbs in order to save a person's life. Our Canadian adventure had hurt us more the helped us.

I'm guessing those layoffs include the people who had the brilliant idea of charging more for the same products sold in the states.

Sarcasm aside, this hurt a lot of people and its sad how it all turned out due to bad planning.

william-james88 wrote:

Towline wrote:

shajaki wrote:i wonder what this means for target USA? they lost a lot of money coming to Canada only to walk away from it all... would there be any kind of ripple effect?

Well in the USA state of Minnesota. "The birthplace of Target." We had to lay off a lot of managers in the corporate offices and lay off a lot of retail store staff as well. These lay offs are the human medical surgery equivalent of amputating some limbs in order to save a person's life. Our Canadian adventure had hurt us more the helped us.

I'm guessing those layoffs include the people who had the brilliant idea of charging more for the same products sold in the states.

Sarcasm aside, this hurt a lot of people and its sad how it all turned out due to bad planning.

What I don't get, is why abandon so soon? No business is a smashing success in it's first year, couldn't a little more time have helped?

shajaki wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Towline wrote:

shajaki wrote:i wonder what this means for target USA? they lost a lot of money coming to Canada only to walk away from it all... would there be any kind of ripple effect?

Well in the USA state of Minnesota. "The birthplace of Target." We had to lay off a lot of managers in the corporate offices and lay off a lot of retail store staff as well. These lay offs are the human medical surgery equivalent of amputating some limbs in order to save a person's life. Our Canadian adventure had hurt us more the helped us.

I'm guessing those layoffs include the people who had the brilliant idea of charging more for the same products sold in the states.

Sarcasm aside, this hurt a lot of people and its sad how it all turned out due to bad planning.

What I don't get, is why abandon so soon? No business is a smashing success in it's first year, couldn't a little more time have helped?

I looked it up. It turns out that earning were based on Target making profit in Canada within the first year. While that is insane on its own, the profit was based on them charging canadians more for the same products they were selling in the states. That obviously bakfired, causing them to have to lower the price and get lower profit margins. And then our dollar went down and since they are primarily an amaerican corporation, that also cut into their predictions of earnings in american dollars. Their new predicted earnings were far less than expected and dropped the stock price down, making the corporation worth a lot less and thus unable to secure more funds from banks than they could have before. So pretty much staying in canada any longer was constantly putting a halt to plans to expand in the states where they knew the market better. They werent going to wait for their canadian expansion to do better while sacrificing any growth in the states since they couldnt borrow as much.

The increasing pressure from the board members made them abandon canadian operations which made their stock go up, regaining the value ofthe company and their borrowing opportunity for any statewise operations.

They just couldnt sustain the losses in canada.

I just realized I am probably writing this to someone who is probably far more savy than me in the finance sector so sorry if I went overboard and wrote stuff you probably already knew.

Deep down they were doomed to fail due to their poor logic in expansion. Canada is wealthier per capita than the states and its not because we buy overpriced products we can just buy at Walmart instead.

I am actually still quite sad since I liked their toy aisle and I really liked having another place that had exclusives. Of the 3 retailers with exclusives for AOE, only Target had all of theirs in Quebec. And I think Canada wide, we never got the Walmart ones with the Beast Wars and Energon figures.

Yea, raising prices on Canada inventory was a lame move. They're a discount chain, and are extremely competitive in the US in terms of price when compared to Wal-Mart here. Plus, they've cultivated an excellent shopping/branding experience.

They threw that all out the window with the Canadian expansion. No supply chain, no focus on the shopping experience...

Still, they might have turned it around if not for the focus on short term profits/earnings.

The sad part is these new US layoffs, may be less due to the cost of expanding into Canada, as much as the large penalties they are are incurring to pull out.

Again all this could have been avoided had:
a) they hired the right management.
b) accepted the offer from HBC to share their distribution information, rather than trying to build their own from scratch.
c) had the balls bite the bullet, fix the errors that were self-evident, listen to their location managers, and ride out the storm.

I don't have a lot of investments, but I know enough to play the long game. Yes, 5 years is a long turn for profitability, but I refuse to see how this move will do anything but give their shareholders short term relief.

Editor wrote:
I don't have a lot of investments, but I know enough to play the long game. Yes, 5 years is a long turn for profitability, but I refuse to see how this move will do anything but give their shareholders short term relief.

Oh, this is ALL about short term relief. But though they might not recuperate anytime soon (or ever), the stock could have plummetted due to momentum if they would have stayed (with the same dumb mentality, of course).

The conservative estimation had them in the black in 2021. Maybe sooner maybe later, but it's the fact they just gave up.

It would be one thing if like Walmart they had come in, set stuff up, failed and left, but that they killed Zellers in their entry and became their defacto replacement, ment that isn't just a 2 year up and down, but the death of an option Canadians have had for decades.
Sure Zellers itself depending on your view has been dead for 3 or so years now, or still alive (technically 2 locations are still open) it is highly unlikely that HBC would have shuttered them the way Target is, if that lease buy-out never occurred in the first place.

That is what pisses me off.

on the replacement store scene, a friend in the kamloops area, said that there were Ikea shirts walking around one of their targets with measuring devices, so it looks like Ikea is looking at a few for their small regional store concept.

I can see how that would piss you off. Zellers had died in my area (replaced by the bay discount warehouses) so I never saw it as the death of another option. It seems Lablaws will be taking some of the Target leases too.

Sad, Target is one of the first places to pick up the newest Transformers