Target effectively calls Zellers customers old and cheap
Target’s arrival in Canada next year isn’t all sunshine and roses (or, rather, designer collaborations and cute doggie mascots). The company is embroiled in a controversy over its decision not to keep 10,000 employees who work in the Zellers locations it’s taking over—just this morning, workers and union leaders demonstrated outside Target’s Canadian headquarters in Mississauga. Target’s position is that it acquired the Zellers stores in a real estate transaction, plain and simple, and that it’s in no way a successor to Zellers (a designation that would require it to retain some union employees). In fact, the company issued a statement baldly pronouncing that “Zellers attracts a different customer base, older and more likely to be ‘empty nesters,’’’ who “spend significantly less per visit than a Target guest.” So, basically, Zellers customers are neither young enough nor rich enough for the American company. Ouch. [Huffington Post]
. The company is embroiled in a controversy over its decision not to keep 10,000 employees who work in the Zellers locations it’s taking over—just this morning, workers and union leaders demonstrated outside Target’s Canadian headquarters in Mississauga. Target’s position is that it acquired the Zellers stores in a real estate transaction, plain and simple, and that it’s in no way a successor to Zellers (a designation that would require it to retain some union employees). In fact, the company issued a statement baldly pronouncing that “Zellers attracts a different customer base, older and more likely to be ‘empty nesters,’’’ who “spend significantly less per visit than a Target guest.” So, basically, Zellers customers are neither young enough nor rich enough for the American company. Ouch. [Huffington Post]){kind=link}
This is a better reason not to go to non target,,I HAVE BEEN TO NON TARGET IN U.S YEARS AGO ,,LOOKED AROUND AND BOUGHT NOTHING …NO BIG DEALS ..NOT EVEN THE SPECIALS..WASTE OF TIME..LONG LIVE ZELLERS WHEREVER YOU ARE..
sorry but zellers have looked like trash for a long time now. not only are they dirty and have extremely poor customer service, but they rarely have anything worth buying. it’s no wonder they were bought out. target is completely in the right. maybe that statement was a little harsh, but target is NOT zeller’s successor and shouldn’t be blamed for being “AMERICAN” the second they don’t kiss ass and take on a bunch of employees they (as a company) have no history or obligation to take under their wing. sorry, losing zeller’s is a loss for canadian companies, but this article reeks of bias, like usual.
Nor are they gay because Target has done some very anti-gay stuff in the US… I for one won’t be shopping there.
Well neither am I old nor am I cheap. I have been shopping at Zellers for along time and as soon as Target is here I will not be shopping there at all. They have that American stench that we all so hate!
shop canadian:shop HART Stores!
for those knocking the american stench…. don’t forget most of the large retailers (Walmart, Bestbuy) are also american
wow, it’s refreshing to see more posters recognizing Target’s horribleness!
Unfortunately, I am less shocked by how many Canadians are okay with seeing people thrown to the side like pieces of garbage. I guess those posters don’t know what it’s like to have to cobble together a livelihood, or they don’t care. It’s deplorable what Target is trying to do to the employees in order to prevent any unionization from occuring in their stores. Of course, that’s the global trend right now, so I sincerely hope everyone is okay with less human dignity and rights in the workplace (unless you’re the owners of that capital).
As a Canadian, I will not support an anti-gay store. I think many people have forgotten Canadian morals and values and instead view cash as their new secular god.
Zellers customer is certainly not the customer Target is looking for. Zellers dropped their flyers to coincide with the release of welfare cheques!, ask anyone that worked in their head office. Target is here to sell higher quality product at higher prices. They are not looking to cash welfare cheques, and take money from the poor, and that was Zellers in a nutshell.
1) Target is not the “successor” to Zellers. Just because they purchased many of their locations in no way obligates them to hold on to Zellers’ staff.
2) Zellers stores were dirty, untidy, had no staff and it was so obvious no one, from upper management on down, gave a sh*t about their stores. It boggled my mind that anyone would shop there in the first place.
3) I laugh when people say they won’t shop at Target – they’re boycotting, no shopping American, etc. Because when you see how clean, neat, and the choice of products at Target, you’ll be there. Oh yes, you’ll be there.
Target knows how to make a buck and why follow Zellers business model that drove Zellers down the toilet? My local Zellers in Gerrard Square has been an terrible for years. Most of the staff were lacking any motivation for a number of years.
To the US haters, I guess you avoid all of the following;
Tim Hortons, McDonalds, Home Depot, Winners, Walmart etc.
@Bill Lloyd
“Zellers customer is certainly not the customer Target is looking for. Zellers dropped their flyers to coincide with the release of welfare cheques!, ask anyone that worked in their head office. Target is here to sell higher quality product at higher prices. They are not looking to cash welfare cheques, and take money from the poor, and that was Zellers in a nutshell.”
What a bigoted statement!
The Zellers in my area has very good customer service.
Target should retract that statement.
I certainly won’t be shopping at Target!
And I’m certainly not old nor cheap and no, I don’t live on welfare.
@ Dave…Tim Hortons, are you kidding me!! Better do your research!
@Kim, TH is owned by Wendy’s which is an American company.
I must agree with the statements relating to the messiness of some Zellers stores and occasional bad customer service! Been there, experienced that. To those of you who are dissing the fact that Target is American, know this: at least an American store would hire Canadians, there are lots of others who open businesses here and only hire their own without caring about anyone else. Stick that in your caps!
I’m old and cheap and shopped at Zellers rarely. I had looked forward to Target, but don’t like how they have treated the Zellers’ staff, so will take my purchasing elsewhere. Because I am cheap, I tend to buy high quality, expensive things that last a long time.
What a bunch of left-wing garbage. Target has absolutely no obligation to take on a bunch of good-for-nothing Canadian welfare shop employees. Target appeals to the stylish middle class – a demographic that steers clear of dirty stinky old Zellers. They are two completely different entities, and I for one am looking forward to Target’s opening. When you rent a new home are you obligated to employ the previous tenant’s lazy housekeeper?
While some of the generalizations made about Zellers stores (e.g. low-end product placement, employees lacking stellar customer service skills, etc.) may be true, it must be taken into consideration that not ALL Zellers outlets are this way. This can be related to ANY chain store (department, outlet, fast-food, etc.) that exists. You’ve all been to a Wal-Mart or Tim’s only to become frustrated that the particular location’s service, efficiency, or cleanliness is not up to expectations that have been established at other locations. It is up to the management and employees to ensure that everyone working for the company intends to strive to be the best at what they do. So while some Zellers employees may be lacking in customer service skills, I argue that so are some Wal-Mart associates. I don’t expect any different from Target employees. I have no intentions of supporting Target, Walmart, and other big box stores, but rather enjoy knowing that my shopping supports local businesses downtown, run by REAL families in our community, not company big-wigs elsewhere in the world.
Target wants to attract a different customer base, when they purchased the Zellers locations it did not include a contract to hire their employees nor their customers. Zellers stores were old and worn looking. Everytime I was interested in purchasing an item advertised in their Flyers – I would go to the store and I was told it never arrived, or their employees weren’t aware of this item, or didn’t know where it was – there was always an execuse. Zellers employees lacked any sense of good customer service. I have witnessed their employees arguing with each other. It just wasn’t an environment that encouraged me to want to shop at Zellers. I just stopped shopping at their stores. I do hope that Target hires those Zellers employees who were great at their job and had a positive attitude. As for the rest…good luck in your future endeavours.
Um…y’all know that Zellers has been American owned for years, no?
@Old and Cheap…you are awesome! :)You made me laugh out loud and you have a solid point. Just because, you are cheap doesn’t mean you have to buy crap.
I used to shop at Zellers when I was younger, but they missed the boat years ago when Walmart came into town. They did their renovations way too late, and yes…at the end of the day, it’s the management’s responsiblity to make sure their staff is working effectively. It’s also the unions job to not stand behind workers who have a history of bad work habits.
Hopefully, some of those employees will be hired back and can get different positions or better opportunites in a new company. Sometimes change is good, but it’s up to the individual to make that change positive or negative.
I cannot believe that people think that its reasonable to assume that a company has to /should/ morally obliged to keep employees that worked in the same buildings that Target purchased! Get a grip!! if the agreement did not state that Targets has to keep the Zellers employees then you should be angry at Zellers and not Target!!
Thank you Meme, Za and the other informed posters… for the rest of you spouting your ‘I WILL NEVER SHOP AT TARGET’ crap the real truth of the matter is that the majority of the places you shop are American owned (YES: Tim Hortons, HBC, Zellers, Home Outfitters, etc). Unbeknownst to you because you would rather get on your soap box than learn about what you are actually discussing (a travesty in our information age…it’s called Google)!
For those who are shopping at Canadian ‘stores’, that’s great the owner of the store is Canadian but probably 95% of what they are selling and is in your household is made in China and elsewhere. So if you’re going to be high and mighty about ‘shopping Canadian’ think about all the stuff you buy (even if it is bought at a truely Canadian owned store) made everywhere else but North America.
Most people will shop at Target….you will have no choice and you will be spouting how much you love it in a few years time.
Personally I shop at neither of these places (I have lived in California for a few years, so Target and their marketing was everywhere). I’m not perfect, and it is pretty much impossible to buy only North American made goods, however I try, I am very cognizant of where things are made. I try to buy recycled, biodegradeable, natural products free of chemicals, they can be hard to find, however it can be done (I order a lot of stuff online). If you really want to protest about how things are done, and make the only statement that will ever deter companies, do so with your purchasing power!
Wendy’s sold off Tim’s partially in 2006 and then Tim’s sold rest off Wendy’s share around 08.
The Zellers store in Elliot Lake looked worn and its merchandise was in a bit of disarray with damage to its packaging. In this case, however, the problem lay more with the condition of the Algo Centre Mall whose roof was leaking over the years. Unfortunately the mall collapsed June 23, killing two people and closed the Zellers store. It looks like we will shop at the Lasalle Boulevard Target store in Sudbury, Ontario by default as Elliot Lake lost over 50 percent of its retail space with the mall collapse and a condemned strip mall next door.
Zellers started to go downhill after it started to sell shares. The share holders voted for things that didn’t help the stores. Getting stock was always an issue but that is a Canadian issue for most stores. When in the States, I did not care for Target stores. While they were large, I found them cold and unfriendly. The Americans who bought up HBC are not doing so well with the Bay or Home Outfitters either. The staff is almost none exsistant in most of the stores. It is all about making money. Sadly they are not making as much as they would like so closing one line of stores is happening. I figure they will eventually close all of the line of stores they bought up. :(
I remember the first Zeller’s store I shopped at in Winnipeg back in 1951, along with Woolworth,’s Kresge’s, The Bay, (which used to be the Hudson’s Bay company) Eaton’s. They were all family-friendly; the chuck wagon in the Bay basement where I had a hot dog and a frosted malted every day for lunch…25 cents. The only store left standing is The Bay, and it isn’t so “family friendly” any more. When it moved to the Eaton’s building from 23rd St. here in Saskatoon it went “high-end” to bring in more “desirable” customers. Zellers’ kept it’s reasonably priced merchandise, and I liked shopping there. I’ll stop in at Target when they set up shop to test the atmosphere. I they have a problem with me being “old and cheap” the media will be aware of it! Unfortunately I don’t think they’re going to stick around;like K Mart, which was here for about a year, they’re quietly going to fold their tents, and steal away back home.
as far as i am concerned, all zellers employees were ignorant and lazy for years and i commend target for not keeping them on. i hated zellers shopping, the staff always ignored me and were rude. i welcome target into canada and look forward to shopping there.
It’s a shame that we are losing another Canadian company, but when you looked at Zellers over the years, you would have seen a department store that never renovated or updated their stores.
I mean some of their stores looked so run down and their products weren’t that great and as many have mentioned, their customer service was appalling. I’m glad that they are being replaced, with a cleaner, more modern department store.
It’s funny how there are so many comments about how people aren’t going to shop at Target. I bet you anything that once he store opens, those same people will be there.
People on welfare cant afford to shop
They dont even have enough money to buy the clothes to get a new job or to pay the transportation to get there.
Its a circle that most would like to get out of. Government programs are advertised but try to actually get in one. Good Luck
They were not all lazy. Maybe the ones you had. Maybe they just didnt want to serve you LOL
Zellers is the worst place to shop at. The staff are extremely rude, lazy and ignorant. Honestly speaking, I have never ever witnessed anything like them. The managers are the worst! I went there during the early liquidation process, the store was in a miserable condition, everything was a complete mess and all the prices were wrong. Customers had moved things around where they didn’t belong, but the staff didn’t bother to put anything back where they belonged. As a result, customers were having a field day trying to figure out how much the discounted prices were actually at. Barcodes from the items were missing, therefore there was no way to know how much the prices were since everything was in the wrong place! Asking the staff didn’t help because their responses were: “I don’t know how much it costs, go up to the cash register and ask there!” This was the reply from three different employees! … You’d think they would take more pride in their work and go and check the prices out to help the customers, but sadly they didn’t! The price checkers were out of service, the cash registers were all having huge line ups; so it was close to impossible to get a price. Some of the customers had no choice but to go up to the cash register and wait in line to enquire about the prices, and you can imagine the kind of frustration this created! The cashier being overwhelmed and trying to get customers out of the store just priced things how they “thought it should be” which didn’t help at all. All in all the experience was disgusting to say the least. I hate Zellers and I am happy to hear that Target is replacing them, good riddance. I wish Target all the best!
Zellers may have been cheap, but its’ employees were Canadian. Boycott Target! Boycott Walmart!
I see many posts about bad customer service and how Zellers employees were rude but not at my Zellers they weren’t the staff at my Zellers were nice and caring people who didn’t hesitate to help me or answer my questions and shame on target for saying that because whether they like it or not the purchase HBC which I believe includes Zellers making them not only the owner of the buildings but the name itself so that means they should at least give the employees a chance. I’m not saying they should automatically get a job but have an upper hand on one.
Many folks don’t read the newspapers. You are correct, and Target owned part of Zellers (about 30%) many years before the take over. In the early morning at Guelph On. the Target trucks would br making deliveries to the Zellers stores. I personally witnessed this many times.
Ok where is you beloved Target now?