Wow.
It’s pretty rare that something happens in the corporate world that is so pathetic that it blows my mind, however, Target Canada (Target Brands Inc) has done it.
My friend Paul told me that he was unable to view the products that Target sells on their website. I refused to believe him and didn’t even bother checking. Finally, he forwarded this email communication with them and in disbelief I verified it, and found that it’s true:
>>You can’t browse their products online.<<
Sorry? Come again? You can’t browse a major big box retail shop’s offerings online?
That’s right! It’s like the dark ages over there.
Here is the dialogue which is equally funny to read:
===========================================
Here is my response to Target…
If I was a shareholder I would be less than pleased to find out they had no Internet presence in Canada. The endless excuses for why their sales have been dismal start to fall away pretty quickly!
Paul
——– Forwarded Message ——–
Subject: Re: Online Shipping [ ref:_00Di0bdoy._500i0HqRJ5:ref ]
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 08:44:34 -0800
From: Paul
To:
Hi Jessica,
While Target focuses on opening stores I will unfortunately not be one of your “guests”. For a store that has been plagued by supply chain issues and empty shelves it is unreasonable to expect anyone to go to a Target location in search of a specific item. Come on; it is 2014 and Target already has a working system in place in the US…
Paul
On 14-12-24 08:12 AM, Target Guest Relations wrote:
I really thought Target had learned these lessons of retail a long time ago in their history when the star performer of the Dayton Corporation
was reduced to an extremely poor performer which required a total revamp of all Target stores in the USA. They then partnered with high quality brands selling these brands at lower prices in greater volumes
and using these brands figureheads to advertise that fact. This brought alot of buzz Targets way and yet even after learning this lesson from its past Target failed to have a separate department roll out its Canadian online sales in tandem with its 100 store grand opening strategy.
I have been defending Target and explaining the closure was merely a strategy to gain maximum concessions to help it lift itself into profitability in Canada but I have since learnt Target staff saw the writing on the wall for the past 2 years! If I were a Target shareholder I would seek the sacking of all management involved in this fiasco in corporate retailing. Basic stuff was ignored and worse it was ignored for years! there are no excuses for a corporation with the skill set available to it inside Target to fail so utterly miserably in Canada
I live at the other end of the planet and could have done a lot better using a safer strategy rollout than Targets did.
The interesting thing about this post I made was it was just days before this closure was announced. I was listening to the radio and had to slap myself in the face to make myself believe they truly sucked that badly. The other really weird thing that was a red flag like I’ve never seen was that when I went in to buy a cell phone plan (I was royally pissed off at Fido see other article for fun) and walked across the hall and signed up at target. The sales rep kept loading me with free stuff to the point when I said to him “This is either a scam or you guys are insane. What’s the catch?” But it was real. I took my free target merchandise and gave it out as gifts. Giving free stuff is cool but if this is a money-losing mandate that’s pretty scary for a big name. Wild times.