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Comment by giarc | Hacker News Reader

Here is my anecdotal reason why Target failed.

Target missed the boat by about 15-20 years. I entered 4 or 5 different Target locations in Canada and none of them had a full grocery selection. Targets were basically Walmarts before they began converting to full grocery stores.

Therefore, shoppers had the option to either go to a Walmart Superstore and get everything they needed, or go to Target and get 80% of what you needed, the remaining 20% being available at a grocery store.

Beyond all the data logistics issues, Target would have never succeeded in my opinion as they couldn't compete with Walmart on selection (or Great Canadian Superstore for that matter).

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The problem I found is in the US there is a class system of those who despise Walmart as being for the "commoners". In Canada the stigma is much less to non-existent. Walmart pays more, has the same insurance for all its employees, and does not actively promote "anti-union" videos to new hires.

I wouldn't even say commoners. Walmart has a reputation for having very trashy, uncouth people walking about. The employees at Target also seem a bit friendlier, whereas Walmart probably scrapes.the bottom of the barrel for its employees. My mother has been the weekend manager at a Walmart for 30 years and it's a real shit-show keeping staff because most are incredibly unreliable and don't give a damn about their job.

Walmart in Canada is much, much nicer than in the US. In the US, we almost never went to Walmart and preferred shopping at Target. When we moved back to Canada, we initially were delighted that there was now a Target store in our area. We had horrible experiences and it turned us off completely.

I feel really bad for the people who lost their jobs.. for young people in their first job, it might be okay. For older folks who probably quit a job some place else, it is really a hard experience.

Walmart stores in Toronto that I visited, definitely seemed crowded with long check outs. Other cities in Ontario, the checkouts seem to be adequately staffed. I'm surprised how different Walmart Canada is from the US operation!

Honestly Walmart deserves the type of employees they have with the compensation they offer. Getting good retail-capable employees isn't complicated so they've obviously made a conscious choice to have the place be a meat grinder for awful employees.

This is basically correct in my view as far as the US: Target here is basically the "upscale Walmart": people who want to avoid the "people of Walmart" go to Target instead. Things might be very slightly more expensive, and there might not be quite as much selection, but the clientele is definitely very different any place where the two stores are close to each other. It's really rather remarkable.

Also, Target stores here usually seem to be cleaner and neater, whereas Walmart stores frequently seem to be dirtier and the shelves look at bit ransacked and picked-over.

However, this does vary a lot by location. When I lived in northern New Jersey, the Walmarts there were a horror show: nasty floors, shelves looking like people just went through shopping in preparation for a hurricane, etc., whereas the Targets were nice. The customers at the Walmarts also seemed to be all poorer minorities, black and hispanic (I'm white), whereas Target was full of white and middle-class-looking black people. However in some more rural locations in the South, the Walmarts I've seen were clean and neat (but there were no Targets around).

I rarely go to wal-mart because it's disorganized, often messy, and always crowded. Even with every register open, they just can't keep up with throughput, and bottleneck the checkout process.

The one I go to when visiting Arkansas is better in almost every way, possibly owing to attention of the "home" regional management.

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