I'm excited that I no longer will want to cut my wrists when I walk into Target. The Zellers by my house was only ever used when I was lazy and desperate. It was like walking into 1975. Really was a depressing store to be in.
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It seems we're losing retailers every few months through bankruptcy, takeover, etc. The addition of one that is independent from the players we have now is awesome!
The day I line up to enter a Target at 6:00am to be the first one in. is the day I hope someone stabs me through the heart, as I'll clearly have no purpose for living.
But having another competitor in the marketplace will only benefit the consumer, and I'm certain shoppers will give Target a whirl, if not flock through the doors.
I don't even know if Target plans to sell groceries here, but in Calgary's cutthroat market, I expect some retailers won't survive. Co-op would be my first guess (based both on my own anecdotal observations and musings.)
Everyone's going to do anything they can to attracts people into their doors, and as a consumer, that will likely mean lower prices, unique and different products, and convenience--and that's why people are excited.
It seems like Canadians think anything that is only available in the U.S. is automatically better.
By the way, I heard Jack in the Box is looking for franchise opportunities in Canada now. I can't wait. I have never tried them before, but I bet they are amazing.
I live in the States, and first of all, Jack in the Box is instant stomach illness. Do NOT get excited about it. (Can't tell if you were serious or not.....but if you were....YIKES!)
Secondly, Target is a wonderful, large, well merchandised, well lit, clean, friendly, calm, and pleasant shopping experience for inexpensive (not cheap-cheap implies poor quality) merchandise.
They regularly have the ability to bring in designer clothing that the designer themselves actually remake with inexpensive materials so that the average person can get a designer look without spending a ton of money.
I have been to Walmarts here and it is possibly the most depressing experience one can have. I have to take my friend's prozac before I go in or I might just kill myself. It's truly horrible to even buy a pack of gum from that place.
Target is head and shoulders above any warehouse type store and you will see the quality when the stores open up and are running for a month or two.
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A Target is opening right near my house and I am hoping it cleans the area up a bit. Zellers parking lots/stores used to be a place that homeless people congregate and I would avoid it like the plague. It was bringing down the whole area and became an eyesore.
I went to a Target down in the states and it was like a better version of Walmart.
Say what you want about Zellers, but the utter exploitation I made of their yellow tag pricing policy was awesome. Either their prices were ridiculously high, or inexplicably low.
I will never forget the day I picked up $400 10 gallon Coleman upright air compressors, with 13 piece tool kits ad hoses, for $25 each. The hoses were worth 25 bucks FFS. They were marked on clearance for $99 which was already insane, and yellow tags that weekend were an additional 75% off. I bought every one in Calgary I could find (I think it was 13), and got $150 a pop on Kijiji. And gave away 5 as gifts. I borrowed my dads truck to get them all, and the look on my dads face was priceless when he saw all these Compressors in the back of his truck. He thought I went insane... but was very happy when I gave him one as the truck rental fee. I will miss Zellers and their incoherent pricing model.
/coolstorybro
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Someone mentioned lighting - that's a huge thing for me at Target. I don't know what it is about Walmarts and Superstores, but their respective lighting affects me. At Superstore, the crazy brightness they now have since they redid most of their stores gives me a weird trip every time I go in, a kind of light-headiness, if you will. Most Walmarts give me vertigo from the lighting now. In either case, I have to really butch up and prepare myself to go in when I absolutely need something, stupid crowds notwithstanding.
The Target lighting in the few I've been in Montana, Washington and California hasn't bothered me (in the sense I haven't noticed any ill effects from going in), so here's to hoping the lighting isn't bad up here.
Also their cheap ass popcorn is great - way too much salt, but that's the catch right? If it were free like Totem...errr...Rona, then that would be better.
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It's the shoes! I've been saying it for years to my wife, who just rolls her eyes.
Walmart, Kmart, Zellers...they all stink because of the cheap rubber soles on their bargain basement shoes, I'm telling ya!
Zellers' smell was a mix of cheap rubber and the old people diner food. We used to kid that it "smelt like poor people".
Ive said it before, but even if Target ends up as a clone of Zellers, but if they renovate the stores, get rid of the restaurants, and drop the unions, we'd still be at a huge net gain.
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Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada aka Flames Country
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I fully expect there to be some that will boycott Target at first for the reason that it's an American company taking over a Canadian company so to speak. After some time, though, they'll start shopping at Target. That's how it works.
Oh yeah, and I'll be working at the Chinook location. I hope I'm scheduled on the day we open, just so I can see if there's a lineup or not.
I fully expect there to be some that will boycott Target at first for the reason that it's an American company taking over a Canadian company so to speak. After some time, though, they'll start shopping at Target. That's how it works.
Oh yeah, and I'll be working at the Chinook location. I hope I'm scheduled on the day we open, just so I can see if there's a lineup or not.
Zellers was owned by HBC which is owned by an American company anyway. I don't see any boycotts happening. Nobody boycotted Wal-Mart when they took over Woolco, or at least I don't remember that happening. Most people were excited.
Unless Target really has American pricing, or at least tries to quickly steal the customer base away from Wal-Mart/Loblaws by undercutting the Canadian status quo on pricing, I don't really see them being a big attraction outside of the first curiosity seekers or for those for whom the locations are convenient.
