What Target's fail says about Canadians
Much ink has been spilled on Target’s swift decision — a mere two years after opening 133 stores across Canada — to just cut bait and head home. A flurry of poison darts and arrows have been fired at the Minneapolis, Minn.-based discount retailer for its mismanagement of its Canadian expansion by pundits such as Retail Prophet founder Doug Stephens, who calls it a “comedy of errors” and believes that “from the beginning, it was Target’s to lose.”
Indeed, the fallout on the ground here is already not pretty: some 17,000 jobs will be lost across the country (and in some already challenging markets Target should never have been in the first place, communities such as Medicine Hat, Alta.; Smiths Falls, Ont.; Rimouski, Que.; and Corner Brook, Nfld.). Advertising and public relation firms here in Toronto that were riding on Target’s business are already cutting staff, local media across the country will soon see decreased revenue and the already-beleaguered Toronto Fashion Week will sorely miss Target Canada as a sponsor. After seeking bankruptcy protection for the $5 billion it owes to creditors, Target will also be leaving some Canadian suppliers such as Roots (purportedly out of pocket $433,248 in unpaid invoices) out on the ice to cool.
Potentially the most damaging aftershock of Target’s quick retreat, however, is the possible perception amongst foreign investors that we are “not ready” for a stylish proposition such as Target, or perhaps somehow unwelcome to a new and untested retail experience.
This is not the conclusion that should be drawn from the Target fail. Yes, we are different shoppers than Americans, but those differences, much in every other cultural and political way, are maddeningly subtle and difficult to articulate. But here’s a go:
1. We don’t shop for sport. Whether it’s the one-two punch of our self-denying, tight-fisted Scot heritage with the new Canadian imperative to save and scrimp as much as humanly possible to provide a better life for the next generation, we Canadians do not enjoy parting with money. We don’t seem find it fun in the same way Americans do to wander a mall looking for something to buy. Sure, the Costcos and Price Clubs do well, but those are largely food and necessities propositions, so they are more easily justified. One reason we are so reluctant to open our wallets is that most of us simply have less disposable income than Americans. Unlike our neighbours to the south, we can’t deduct our mortgage interest payments from our bills to Revenue Canada. And the cost of living here is higher, from what most of us have to pay for a place to live, to buying a bottle of wine or going out to dinner.
2. We are extremely discerning. When we do spend, we want it to be on something good. Canadians have been relatively slow to embrace e-commerce, because we are still “touch and feel” shoppers. What’s more, says Stephens, “Canadians have a more sophisticated sense of style than shoppers do in the U.S. There’s a general willingness and history here of looking beyond our boundaries.” The comparative success of premium high street brands here such as Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and JCrew, each of which took baby steps here in their expansion, shows that we will pay more for brands that deliver.
“I don’t see our kicking Target to the curb as us turning our back on style,” says Stephens. “If anything, it’s that they underestimated our style-savviness by giving us nothing more than Zellers.”
3. If we’re not urban, we’re rural. Aside from the small rings around Toronto, Montreal, maybe Ottawa and Vancouver, there are no commuters in ex-urban “bedroom communities” underserviced when it comes to bricks-and-mortar stores. In fact, compared to the widespread population in America or Europe, across most of our vast acreage, there’s hardly a living soul. And for the few intrepid folks out there in the wilderness, there is something known as the Internet.
4. We are distrustful of hype. There is nothing that irks us more than the self-assured pomposity of anyone or anything that loudly blows it is own horn. Proclaim your greatness and our first reaction will be immediately dislike, whether or not it’s deserved. It’s not very nice to our own winning propositions to hate them for being grand, but we do, right off the bat. And then, if we do finally break down under the pressure of all that hype and check you out — God forbid you don’t deliver. For ultimately nothing bonds us together so closely as a nation than our utter dismissal of — and disdain for — anything that turns out to be just a lot of hooey.
You should also see:
Tags:
—————