[LINK] "Long list of small businesses wait for cash as Target’s cheque bounces"

[rfmcdonald]

The Globe and Mail's Martina Strauss looks at the plight of the many small Canadian businesses hit hard by Target Canada's bankruptcy.

When Target Canada collapsed into bankruptcy protection last month, hundreds of suppliers like Tanya Vierhuis felt the fallout.

The 20-year veteran market researcher spent months working on a major customer-feedback project for the discount retailer. Just before Target was granted court protection from creditors, the company sent her a cheque for $18,000, the final payment for her work. The cheque was dated Jan. 13, two days before the court filing, but she didn’t get it until Jan. 26. When she went to the bank to cash it, the cheque bounced.

Now, she’s among nearly 2,000 unsecured creditors who are waiting to see if and when they’ll get any of the money they’re owed.

“That’s my mortgage payment for the next four months,” said Ms. Vierhuis, a 44-year-old single mother of a 12-year-old son.

Ms. Vierhuis was far from alone in getting a rude surprise when Target announced it was quitting Canada and closing its 133 stores by the spring. The failed retailer is letting go its 17,600 employees – plus another 720 at its U.S. head office and in India.

But others also are feeling the pain, including suppliers such as Ms. Vierhuis, landlords and Target’s franchised pharmacists.On Wednesday, suppliers made a bit of headway in Ontario Superior Court in their tussle with Target Canada to try to get back some of their inventory. Some are worried the chain bulked up on orders in the month before it filed for creditors’ protection.