Target taking over Zellers (Canada VS America)

[spiffiness]

Joelcool7 said:

spiffiness said:

Joelcool7 said:

AussieGecko said:

SamuelRSmith said:

Why would somebody care what country a company comes from?

more jobs in said market, profit goes back to country, patriotical pride

Biggest one, profit from Walmart, Target and all the other American companies goes where? Not spent in Canada or kept in Canada. It goes to the US. Target right now says they will double the amount of staff working at their stores, but Zellers did carry many Canadian products and invested alot of money in Canada which in turn meant more Canadian jobs.

Also yes I have patriotical pride in my countries stores. Sure Zellers is not the cheapest and is not Walmart. But it is at least was Canadian. I like knowing that Canada is different then America. Once Target takes over Zellers we will have most of the big American companies here in Canada and very few of our own.

I like visiting the states to shop at Target and other American stores like K-Mart. But that does not mean I want to see them all up here. I guess many Canadians don't seem to care that all our companies are being gobbled up but I certainly do. Canada is Canada it isn't Northern United States.

For me its an identity crisis, what seperates Canada's market from America's? If every Canadian retailer is owned by American companies and all our money goes to American corporations whats left thats truly Canadian?

As someone mentioned earlier, HBC is already American, and since Zellers was part of HBC, you are several years too late. Also, I remember K-Mart being here at some point a long time ago, but it died LOL... it's not always a success for American companies to come here. Anyways, I don't see why Canadian identity has to be defined by where we shop. We are more than that.

 

This is partially right. However when Jerry Zucker made the bid to buy HBC he also got Canadian citizenship and kept the HBC headquarters in Canada. So while he was an American and his company is American they kept HBC at least somewhat Canadian, the owner had Canadian citizenship and he money was spent here in Canada employing Canadians.

Well, I guess that's something.

Zellers and HBC also sell alot of Canadian products. I remember when Zucker took over many people were afraid that he would cease the contracts with Canadian companies but he didn't. Zellers and HBC are two of the only stores that actually sell a ton of Canadian products.

But Target is another thing. Its headquarters are not in Canada. The funds it makes will be spent in America not Canada. It will also further drive Canadian buisnesses out of buisness like Walmart is already doing. Yes K-Mart was in Canada but they couldn't compete with Zellers and Walmart. They ended up going under and leaving Canada. But not before they drove Eatens out of buisness.

Target is still employing Canadians, just not in the head office. They will probably still have a distribution centre and maybe even a Canadian headquarters. And I don't think K-Mart drove Eatons out of business. K-Mart was done long before Eatons was. According to wiki, Eatons went down because of poor business management and stiffer competition from The Bay, Sears, Zellers, and eventually Walmart.

In the end your right Canada is not determined by where we shop. But where we shop does make our economy. It means Canadian jobs, Canadian money. Also yes our identity is partially determined by what buisnesses we have, whats left to differentiate our countries retail market when every store in Canada is American?

I think you place too great an emphasis on domestic retail. Canada's economy is largely based on foreign trade because our own market is relatively small, and 79% of our exports are to the US. (http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Economics/GDP-Growth.aspx?symbol=CAD ) One could argue that it's more important for the US to do well in order for Canadian businesses to do well.

And I still have to disagree with you about our identity being related to our businesses. When someone is asked what makes them Canadian or proud to be Canadian, I think very few would say, "I shop at The Bay." I don't think Canadians in general are so preoccupied with consumerism.