Retail giant Target announced it will close all 133 of its Canadian stores and lay off more than 17,000 workers.
The company expanded into Canada about 2 years ago and it’s been a disaster. The company invested billions in refurbishing stores and will take a $5.4 billion writedown this quarter. Canadian dollar falling was likely the death knell for the project as it would have hurt the profitability (in USD) and may have caused supply chain/hedging issues.
USD/CAD is back up at 1.1928 from as low as 1.1803. It’s a terrible sign for retail investment into Canada and it’s bad news for retail floorspace.
