Hello All – I am in finance, ~2 years with Target, this is my first job. I love the brand, that’s one of the reasons I joined, I was an bus econ / accounting major and I had different options career-wise, yet I chose to come here as I liked the people who interviewed me and I really was into the brand. My position has not changed, I still like it here. I wanted to ask something that’s not completely relevant here but may shed some light on what’s going to happen in the future. I’ve noticed that a lot of retailers are laying people off and closing stores, I am not sure what’s going to happen to us, but JC Penney was closing 50 stores the other day, Macy’s almost 20, Wet Seal and RadioShack are in BK, you name it. In your opinion, what’s driving this trend and is it going to continue and adversely affect us.
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Amazon makes tons of money they reinvest all of it so they have very low net income. That is why services like prime cost $99. That is also why there revenue grows like crazy each yesr
maybe people are realizing that you only need so much shit and buying "refreshed" furniture from target and other junk is really not worth it? we're way too over-saturated in products, and the only way target can survive is not to sell you something of better quality but to entice you to buy the exact same shitty item next year because they've changed the color. look at any target designed item, even furniture, everything has to be refreshed within 1 year, max 2...
Last time I looked, Amazon wasn't making any money ! It's all show !! Target will come back and be leaner and more powerful !
All - I am the original posters, thank you for the insight.
Death of the store model
Retail overall is not a good industry. We are way overstored and the masses that retail depends on have had stagnant to declining wages for the past 20 years. Pretty much only online retail is growing, there are exceptions like Costco and nordsroms. Target and most others have struggled to grow online sales. You are better off leaving in search of a higher growth industry.
Those who do e-commerce well, like Amazon are taking significant market share with great instocks, speedy delivery, variety, reliability, and prices. Target needs to do a better job of leveraging the power of the physical stores and e-commerce at the same time (omni channel). Not to mention they need to get back to being more relevant and edgy. They lost focus over the last few years and became rather bland. Plus there are a surprising number of times product is not instock.
I am not an expert in strategy as I work in a store (still in school) but think in terms of your shopping experience - once you shop at an Apple store, do you really ever want to go back to Target and shop for your electronics there? Clueless associates, sometimes poor product selection, narrow aisles, etc. Just my 2 cents.
I think there is a huge trend of shopping local, DIY and Making things on your own that is hurting major retail. Not to mention the ease of online shopping.
Maybe someone on Amazon's board might be able to help you figure out future and past - they are pretty much calling most of the shots now