[LINK] Two links about the aftermath of Target Canada

[rfmcdonald]

CBC's Sophia Harris reports on the complaints of some of the nearly eighteen thousand Target Canada employees that they have been left in the dark about what will happen with their lives.

When Sarah first started working at an Ontario Target store almost two years ago, she was brimming with excitement. "We thought, this is it, we’re the bee's knees, we’re setting up a store that’s going to take over."

Sarah is not her real name. She wants that withheld, she says, because "we’ve been told as a team that we’re not to speak to the press or we could be terminated early." Target spokesman Eric Hausman said in an emailed statement that it’s standard practice that media only deal with the company’s public relations department.

Sarah believes her bright beginning at Target has deteriorated into the darkest of endings. The team floor member first learned Target Canada was doomed, not from her employer, but from the television news in the staff lunch room.

"Within half an hour of it being on the news, we had [customers] coming in going, 'When’s it all going liquidation, when’s the sales start?’ Like, whoa, we just found out half an hour ago we’re losing our jobs. Let us wrap our head around that."

Sarah says it wasn’t until at least an hour after learning the news that management started informing employees that Target was closing its 133 Canadian stores and letting go its approximately 17,600 workers.

blogTO's Chris Bateman notes that Walmart will be well-positioned to pick up most Toronto-area Target Canada locations.

Research by CIBC predicts two retailers will bid for the available retail space: Walmart Canada and Loblaw Companies, the parent of Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart, among others. "Walmart would kill to get these sites; Loblaw would kill to keep Walmart from getting these sites," the report, published last week, says. Canadian Tire and Lowe's are also likely to be in the running for some Canadian locations, which have a combined value of $1.1 billion.

CIBC predicts "an aggressive bidding war" between Walmart and Loblaw (they like to use the word "war") that could see Target's real estate fetch $2 billion.

Some of the Toronto sites, however, have restrictions that prevent Loblaw from simply dropping in a supermarket. "Adding these sites could force Loblaw into the general merchandise business in a bigger way than they might like," possibly opening the door to the introduction of a new Loblaw-owned store concept, CIBC says.

Walmart Canada, on the other hand, would find it relatively easy to simply repurpose former Target locations for its own use. Target deliberately selected Zellers stores away from Walmart locations, and so, if Walmart takes over, there will be few geographical clashes.