Failure pattern · Canada · 2011–2015
Target Canada: 124 stores in under a year, gone in two
Target bought Zellers leases and opened 124 Canadian stores in about ten months. Empty shelves, supply-chain data errors, and higher prices than US Target drove customers away, and it exited in 2015.
By Shivam Bhandari · Reviewed 31 October 2026 · How we write
by the numbers
- Price for Zellers leases (2011)
- about C$1.8 billion
- Stores opened in about 10 months
- 124
- Jobs lost on exit
- about 17,600
- Exit announced
- January 2015
What happened
Many Canadians already loved Target from US shopping trips. In 2011 Target paid about C$1.8 billion for leases on Zellers stores and planned to open them all quickly. It opened 124 stores within roughly ten months in 2013.
New supply-chain and inventory systems were filled with inaccurate product data — wrong dimensions, wrong units — so goods didn't flow correctly. Warehouses were overstocked while store shelves were empty. Prices were often higher than in US Target stores, disappointing customers. Former Zellers locations were sometimes in poor positions.
In January 2015 Target announced it was leaving Canada, closing all 133 stores and cutting about 17,600 jobs, after billions of dollars in losses and charges.
Timeline
- 2011
Zellers leases acquired.
- 2013
124 stores opened.
- 2015
Exit from Canada.
what went wrong
- Expanded too fast to test systems.
- Bad data broke the supply chain.
- Failed to match customer expectations on price and stock.
the lesson
Opening everywhere at once leaves no room to learn; a pilot would have exposed the problems cheaply.
Apply it to your business
- 1Pilot new markets and systems before scaling.
- 2Clean your data before launching new systems.
- 3Meet the expectations your brand creates.
Laws at work in this story
Figures are rounded and drawn from public reports, company filings and widely cited coverage at the time. Check the company's latest filings before relying on any number.