[URBAN NOTE] "Last-minute shoppers thwarted as GTA’s last Target closes early"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Sadiya Ansari reported on the last day of Target Canada in the Greater Toronto Area. I have photos from the Target at the Stockyards last weekend I will share later this week, for whatever it's worth. By the final day, it and the other stores must have been cleared out.

Toronto shoppers were disappointed by Target for the very last time on Sunday, as the final store to close in the GTA was shuttered hours ahead of schedule, frustrating last-minute bargain hunters.

“We are closed permanently now,” a male employee standing outside told a woman approaching the store in Brampton’s Trinity Commons shopping centre on Sunday afternoon.

[. . .]

A funeral had been held at the last outlet to close in Toronto at the Stockyards location on Saturday evening by Harrison Jordan, one of Target’s first customers.

A few days before that store closed, it was already half-empty. Ribbons, wrapping paper, and dozens of garden statues of small dogs were clustered in one aisle while another had mostly binders in it. On a nearby shelf, a Britney Spears album sat near a picture frame, an Xbox game and a crafts kit for making animals from pom-poms — all at 70 to 80 per cent off.

Deepa Kumari was sorting through shopping carts full of odds and ends to fill her own cart. She was somewhat successful, buying socks, toys for her son and a dress for a friend’s daughter.