Target Canada's Weaknesses

Within every organization there are advantages and disadvantages as well as strengthens and weakness. One of the biggest weaknesses of the Target Corporation is that all of their operations are located in the US. The organization would benefit more if they engaged in business with multinational countries. Wal-Mart has more than 11,000 retail stores in 27 multinational countries. If Target is ever going to move out of their second place position behind Wal-Mart there are going to need to expand globally. The Target Corporation is still trying to recover from the embarrassing financial disaster they made when they tried expanding their brand in Canada. Target spent 1.8 billion for 222 locations in Canada. Unfortunately, this merger

Target has been a successful retail company coming in 2nd place behind Wal-Mart. Although these success comes in many forms there are factors that deter Target from ever reaching first. Target Corporation has run into a few weaknesses in the recent years. These weaknesses that Target are facing can impact their future goals. These weaknesses include lawsuits that Target is facing with the recent events and not having an international presence.

The aim of this paper is to highlight the strategic position of the company with an overview of its internal and external environment. The study of its strategy, design and other forces, one can easily gauge why and how target has managed to become the retail giant it is today.

Target Corporation is known worldwide as a large retail chain that brings in millions of dollars each fiscal year. The ability to remain competitive in a saturated industry could prove difficult to some retailers, but Target remains one of the leaders in the retail market. With success comes risk. Target Corporation competes against online retailers as well as “big box” stores to remain competitive.

Canada 's biggest concern encompasses the degree of power to which the Prime Minister is in possession of, coupled with the matter of proper implementation. Accordingly, a survey conducted by Nanos Research displayed results which state 42 percent of Canadian 's believe that the PM should have less power. In extension, polls attest that concerns regarding too much power within the PM stand considerably higher than concerns within any other section of the government (Clark, 2012). In order to adequately comprehend the troublesome overabundance of power placed upon the Canadian Prime Minister, the following four components are to be understood; the influence of Supreme Court judgments, the responsibility of appointing both cabinet ministers

In the wake of recent events myself and the Canadian Government would like to release a statement on the current state of our country’s race relations. Last month with the recent riots in Baltimore that took place on the 28th of april following Freddie Gray 's funeral. Freddie Gray was a member of a sadly impoverished community of African-Americans in Baltimore who like many others in such a situation had trouble with the police. These riots were preceded by peaceful protests that shed light on the current state of America’s police system but sadly they were overshadowed by riots and violence.

Over the past three years, Target has been focusing on an expansion strategy. Target’s goal is to expand its branches not only across the United States, but also in Canada. In 2011 they opened around 21 new stores around the U.S. In addition, they built smaller format Target store called City Target in crowded downtown areas such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco. Target’s initial plan for Canada was to open up to 125 stores, but by August 2014 Target opened about 130 stores in Canada.

After having great success in America, Target has decided to enter the Canadian Market. The first stores opened in March 2013. After analyzing Target, their strengths have become evident, in the early stages of entering the new market. One of their main strengths are branding and pricing. Target unlike their main competitor Walmart, offer designer brands. Brands like; Roots, Kate Young, Dyson, Converse, Shawn White and many more. One of the main brand names offered by Target is Apple. Each Canadian Target location will

Although Target provides superior quality and ideal customer services, the company is still face with risk and threats. The threats of Target consist of:

Although Canada is very weak in the world stages which are the defenses, sexiness, and having a pleasant climate, but overall Canada is still rated as Second for the best country. I can agree on how Canada’s defenses, sexiness and unpleasant climate are weak.

Still, the company’s growth accelerated as the year progressed earning Target $72.6 million in revenues (“Annual Report”, 2014). The new CEO faced many challenges this year including making the tough decision to close stores in Canada and the 2013 information breach settlement

Thus, Target operations thought that opening over 100 stores all over Canada would be a great opportunity for the company to expand its profitability. However, the exact opposite happened. Instead of reaching their profitability goal, there is an estimated loss between $800-$900 million, since the opening of stores in Canada (Austin, 2014). The cause of this failure was due to a lack of inventory in most stores; leading to empty shelves and many of the favorable brands from U.S. Target’s did not make it to the stores in Canada. Another problem was that prices were higher in Canadian stores compared to U.S. store prices due to shipping costs and tax (Austin, 2014). Target failed to think this whole process through before acting on it. Starting with the 124 stores who all had to be remodeled and up and running in less than a year due to Canada’s policy of not letting any store stay vacant for any longer than that; to having the ability to furnish and fill the stores with all of their merchandise (Nolan, 2014). Soon they came to realize they could not. Target’s lack of looking into the higher prices they would have been paying making it able to get the merchandise over the border into Canada, was another issue leading to the company’s ineffective plans. Having noticed early on that the extra costs of tax will lead to a price mark up on in store products,

According to the Statement of Financial Position, Target is carrying a $9,034 million debt. So utilizing debt coupled with common and preferred stock, make up the majority of Target's capital structure. Of course, with debt comes risk. The fear and uncertainty of future earnings and operating income can sometimes come with a high price. For example, the interest rates may be unsuitable to take on debt to raise capital, therefore costing more than raising capital from equity.

Walmart being one of the largest retail chains within Canada faced Target with a challenge. With Target’s arrival, other retail chains began to improve on their store operations and offer better prices as well as merchandise. Target’s CEO at the time Tony Fisher did not know what he was going against, “Rather than buying the leases, emptying the stores, laying off all of the talent, and investing in reconstruction, Target could have purchased Zellers’ outright, taken advantage of its expertise, supplier relationships, ongoing operations, and significantly, functioning inventory control system, then made adjustments as it learned the market slowly but surely convert the Zellers stores to the Target nameplate, learning from the successful lessons of Walmart’s successful entry into Canada at Woolco stores.” (“5 Reasons Target Failed In Canada,” n.d) Target soon realized they would not make any profit until 2021, "So rather than continue to lose money, which I suspect they were doing, they decided to cut their losses and retreat.” (“Target misread its Canadian shoppers and retail market: business expert,” n.d) Canadians were expecting reasonable prices but with competition Target failed to give in to this idea “Analysts say the store’s prices aren’t competitive with the likes of Canadian operations of Walmart and Costco, and that merchandise is consistently out of stock.” (“Why Was Target

Target knows their customers want merchandise on the shelves. Target is always working on sourcing and adjusting their supply chain to make sure production, quality, capacity, pricing, and