Bob CollinsBrian Sozzi of The Street.com pretty much called it when he suggested at the beginning of the year that Target would pull out of Canada.
The company “threw the kitchen sink” at the Christmas shopping season in Canada, he reported, and it didn’t work.
Target is going to write off billions of dollars with the retreat, but it’s not going to be bleeding red ink anymore, either.
So what will it do with its money?
Sozzi has a guess.
Without the steep losses in Canada, Target could jump start two somewhat forgotten strategies — share repurchases and the opening of smaller stores in urban markets. For the nine months ended Nov. 1, Target had not repurchased any of its shares, partly due to the uncertain outlook for Canada and payments to those impacted by the holiday 2013 data breach.
Meanwhile, Target has eight smaller format stores under its CityTarget banner in cities like downtown Seattle and San Francisco. TargetExpress, which has about 20,000 square feet, launched in July in the company’s hometown of Minneapolis. Four new TargetExpress locations will open in 2015, three in the San Francisco Bay area and one in the Highland Park area of St. Paul.
