first streeter

so this morning we had our first streeter of the second semester and our first journalism assignment since Remembrance Day.

For those of you who do know what a streeter is. Well, you are given a list of a few topics. Then you must leave the campus and find 2 strangers, interview them, hustle back to school, and writer a "news story" involving your topic and sources all within two hours. It is stressful. 

I braved the elements at a brisk 8 a.m. and managed to find two people to interview. I, and as it turns out, and many other people decided to talk about Target shutting its Canadian doors for good.

I think it turned out alright and here it is. (I've removed the peoples names that I interviewed)

Target Corporation decided to shut its Canadian doors for good Thursday morning. The perception amongst some Winnipeggers was that of indifference.

“Believe it or not, the only time that I’ve shopped at Target was in Victoria (British Columbia),” said Lady A, Exchange District resident. “Truthfully, I haven’t been to any of the stores in Winnipeg.”

Brian Cornell, Target Corporation chairman and CEO, issued a statement saying that, “after a thorough review of our Canadian performance and careful consideration of the implications of all options, we were unable to find a realistic scenario that would get Target Canada to profitability until at least 2021.”

Target Canada, which opened to the public in March of 2013, had a rocky start from its inception. Having empty shelves and higher than expected prices, Target drove many potential repeat customers away.

“I shopped there twice and was disgusted,” said Lady B. “The prices weren’t competitive with those in the US, and there was a poor selection of items and often had empty shelves.”

Target currently has 133 stores operational in Canada and employees roughly 17,600 people. Target Canada has said it hopes to offer its employees a minimum of 16-weeks of severance. According to social media, many people found out that they were out of a job through Twitter, Facebook and local radio.

“I think it was handled poorly,” said Lady A, who works as a human resource manager. “Local management should’ve brought its employees in and told them what was happening, because this decision wasn’t made over night.”

Lady B, who enjoys shopping at Target in Grand Forks, feels that the business plan in the States is strong and works well but is confused as to why it was not able to transfer into the Canadian market.

When the stock market opened yesterday, Target (NYSE:TGT) stock price had raised $3.01 per share to $77.21 but has since fallen back to $74.20. Management believes that it expects to lose approximately $5.4 billion of pre-tax loses on discontinued operations in the fourth quarter of 2014. Earnings-per-share is expected to come in at $1.43 to $1.46, about six cents higher than anticipated despite the failings above the border.