K-Mart vs Wal Mart vs Target vs Sears vs whatever your local highmarket department store is.

No, they took over a really shitty chain called Zellers which were mostly dim, filthy and empty and no-one liked going there - maybe another problem? I see that they had problems with distribution and so on but another thing is that may we don't need any more stores selling crap. All the urban areas of Canada already have more of that than they need thanks.

Haha, I think I saw this episode of Hoarders.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Zellers_Walmart_comparison.jpg/800px-Zellers_Walmart_comparison.jpg

We had a Sears at our local mall since the mall began in the late sixties. Just a few years ago, it closed. After forty some years. They're putting an athletic facility in its place.

I've learned it doesn't pay to lash out at "the invisible hand", but replacing an institution with a sports facility is, like a lot of these big box replacements, a comment on what corporate America thinks of certain demographics.

We lost our Target, too, but to be frank, they didn't try very hard at that location to win people's love. It was nowhere near as nice as the one five miles east.

Something has to change wrt the values that inform urban planning but I've been told I am a fool.

Target in AU must be an entirely different company. Its not fancy in the slightest, and has no chance of going out of business any time soon. I dont mind it's clothes tbh, if I can get past the whole "this was made in a sweatshop in bangladesh for 10 cents" guilt.

(I just googled it - it is a diff company. Started the same year!)

Some Zellers were dingy, but some were okay. It was a good place to find remaindered DVDs, sometimes highly unlikely ones like Aparajito. I rarely went to the Target close to me.

Target's reputation as an "upscale" mass retail store is a little overblown. A lot of the things they sell are a step or two up from Walmart, and it's nice that they don't have music playing over the store PA (though I don't think many stores do that anymore, following the model started by Target), but it's kind of like getting Romaine lettuce on your Whopper instead of Iceberg.

With Target, I think it depends on the store. Stores in affluent neighborhoods will stock the funky crockery and yuppie foodstuffs many of us have come to love.

They do have a decent food selection, for example, I got samosas there.

For food, Meijer can't be beat, although I try to stay away because they discriminate against gays.

http://www.theprovince.com/business/worked+Target+here+what/10733048/story.html

The closest Zellers to me was in Oakridge Centre and I rarely went there. Oakridge Centre itself always felt kind of weird to go to. Going there specifically to shop at Target would feel even more strange (I never went).

The Targets in the US are marginally better, but really, I'm not a fan. I've noticed most big box stores in the US vary greatly in quality depending on your area, which, I don't know why, I still find weird. In my experience, I don't think quality varies that greatly between stores in Canada, but I could be wrong. Like, going to a Ralph's in an LA suburb is quite different from going to one in Koreatown or on the Westside, and different people shop there, of course. They really, really cater to their demographic, so if I go to a Ralph's in a predominantly Hispanic/'international'(?) neighbourhood, they sell more international/ethnic foods, but if I go to one in West Hollywood or the Westside they sell more generic things and not a lot of variety, or more boutique-y style teas and stuff. It's kind of a weird comment on your demographics maybe?

Also, I can't get ham/'Canadian Bacon' in some Ralph's/big box stores but yes in other ones.

Thinking about what I wrote, it feels like the US truly works on the concept of 'Can this scale?' because everything (good and bad) is amplified. So they really have to micromanage.

It sounds bizarre how poorly managed Target was in Canada and really feel for those laid off.

Clem otm about the DVDs - Zellers is where I found King Vidor's Hallelujah! and the complete '72 Canada-Soviet series

fwiw, I don't think opening 130 stores with empty shelves at once would exactly take off in the U.S. either.

Target in AU must be an entirely different company. Its not fancy in the slightest, and has no chance of going out of business any time soon. I dont mind it's clothes tbh, if I can get past the whole "this was made in a sweatshop in bangladesh for 10 cents" guilt.

― I checked Snoops , and it is for real (Trayce), Thursday, January 15, 2015 9:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(I just googled it - it is a diff company. Started the same year!)

― I checked Snoops , and it is for real (Trayce), Thursday, January 15, 2015 9:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I have been to the Target at Rundle Mall in Adelaide. That's my Australia story.

Our local Target that closed, leaving a big ugly empty box, actually had the problem of RUNNING OUT OF STUFF. Especially stuff for kids - clothes, toys, furniture...then people would come in, see the empty shelves, and drive somewhere else. Also empty shelves are UGLY and make people feel that they are shopping in a low-quality place. Every move they made screamed "ghetto" - no wonder their store shut.

So you have to close because you didn't re-stock enough?? I'm guessing they could have stayed open if they had a better sense of demographics.

It's very NYC that we have multiple Targets but it would be absolutely unconscionable for there to be a Wal-Mart.

This is what a Target in Australia looks like:

http://i.imgur.com/hnWsuh0.jpg

and Woolworth's is a grocery store, so I don't know what's going on there.

Looks like the only difference between Australian Target and North American Target is uppercase letters.

Well, among other things.

http://i.imgur.com/Zq5PqTR.jpg

I think NA Target has a few smaller mall/downtown locations—but not too many.

Both the NYC targets I know are mall targets, albeit multi-floor and fairly large.

We used to go more before we started just buying everything online. They're good for certain things, like cheap houseware and cheap articles of clothing where you don't care a ton about the quality (like a pack of tees or some swim trunks)

There are bigbox Targets in AU if you go out into the burbs. Prob not *as* big, though.

And we have KMart here and apparently *that* has nothing to do with the US one either. In fact the only thing that does afaik is Costco.

(I'm not counting more global things like Ikea, Aldi, etc)

What is an Aldi? We have one right in the plaza with our Costco, but I've never gone in, because it just seems like "what would I go there for when there is a Costco?

If someone told me I could go to Kmart right now and pick up some sherm and an alarm clock, I'd have more reason to believe them than not.

aldi is cheap groceries, right?

http://i.imgur.com/N5L3eUR.png

Aldi is a euro grocery store chain that has branched out abroad. Their main characteristic is that they keep prices down by just setting the product out on the floor in the shipping boxes they came in and making you bag your own purchases instead of hiring any more staff than necessary.

I never do my main grocery shopping there, because their selection is...limited...but I do drop in for bread and milk and other staple things sometimes due to it all being crazy inexpensive.

Also, they own Trader Joe's.

Google Street View still so beautiful.

http://i.imgur.com/VmPxah7.jpg

Wiki says that, as of October 2014, there were still 1,077 Kmarts open in the US. Where the heck are they?!

in the parts of town you dont go to

The very few of them left around the Atlanta metro (and other southern cities I've previously lived in) are scattered way out in the most rural of 'burbs.

kinda what i meant, it just came out wrong

There used to be a Kmart in Manhattan it was weird

I've been to one in queens. It basically just a crappier version of the others, like it has neither the style of target not the low prices and huge selection of Walmart.

There's still one south of here in Columbus, but I don't know how it stays open. The Tupelo location bailed out years ago.

i was stunned the other day to find the one in kona still living.

There used to be a Kmart in Manhattan it was weird

― walid foster dulles (man alive), Friday, January 16, 2015 11:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Did the one at Astor place close

i remember when that target at atlantic center in brooklyn first opened i went there ironically because lol target in downtown brooklyn. but then i kept going back because there was actually some stuff there that i needed at decent prices.

(i can't break my target habit. i know they're driving mom & pops out of business and their labor policies are terrible but mmmm cheap chinese yoga pants.)

Target is the easiest place for me to stop and grab things after work because it's literally one block over (I can see it from my desk all day).

Got a Target across a 4-lane road from my apt (for however much longer)

Should probably grab a new TV there soon, my 16yo Sanyo won't last much longer.

Xp oh I guess that Astor place one is still open after all. For some reason thought it was closed. Rarely go to that area anymore.

there's also one at penn station

The liquidation sale started this morning ("UP TO 30% OF EVERYTHING!). I went around 10am, about 2 hours after it opened, and it was the busiest I have ever seen it by FAR. Like, probably 2 twice the number of cars in the parking lot than the week before Christmas. Every checkout was open and there was a long, long line which I've never seen before.

Haha, weird.

you know what they say, always be closing

Kmart's going downhill, but do you all have the same proliferation of dollar stores popping up everywhere? I swear, I've seen half a dozen Dollar General stores open up in my town within the last year. And that's adding to the existing Dollar General stores, Family Dollars, Dollar Trees, etc. already all over the place.

It's nice to see these things get smaller, but they're still no alternative to local biz.

From the Family Dollar wiki:

As of August 2011 there were 7,000 stores in 44 states. According to their website, in 2005 Family Dollar opened 500 new stores, 350 more in 2006, and an additional 300 in 2007. According to the Company's 2013 Corporate Profile, in 2010 Family Dollar opened 200 new stores, 300 more in 2011, 475 in 2012, and an additional 500 in 2013.

Dollar General:

On January 3, 2011, Dollar General announced plans to add 625 new stores in the 35 states where the chain already has stores plus Connecticut, Nevada and New Hampshire, and to hire 6,000 employees. The company also planned to improve or move 550 existing stores.

Dollar Tree:

In 2010, the corporation opened its 4,000th chain store and acquired 86 Canadian Dollar Giant stores which are based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The stores are operated in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. These are the first retail locations outside of the United States operated by Dollar Tree.

In 2011, Dollar Tree achieved total sales of $6.63 billion, opened 278 new stores, and completed a 400,000 square-foot expansion of its distribution center in Savannah, Georgia.

In 2012, Dollar Tree opened another 345 new stores and exceeded $7 billion in sales, with an end-of-the-year market cap at $9.13 billion.

In January 2015, Dollar Tree announced plans to divest 300 stores in order to appease US regulators scrutinizing its proposed takeover of Family Dollar stores.[6]

SOooooo much expansion going on. Been in one of these like once. I go into Five Below all the time, and those seem to be cropping up everywhere, but just checked and they're mostly mid-Atlantic regional.