Target's arrival adding plenty of jobs to Canada's retail sector

This story sounds like a fluffy pancake. It is sad that when talking about Canada's retailers you could only come up with Canadian Tire. We are american face it. Walmart - american, Home Depot - american, Target - American. As a country we suck at backing up and supporting our own and it is sad. Rona is struggling, RIM is struggling, and yet we introduce another American Brand.

And job creation.....really? Zellers is gone, half those jobs aren't new, they were lost and found again. Not to mention, that most of these jobs will pay people very little (kind of like walmart)

I don't see how this is great news. Wal mart already wiped out most of the mom and pop shops and now are targeting grocery stores and Money Marts. Soon the only places you can shop at will be Walmart, Target, and a few other big box stores.

Canada has very little pride in Canadian Made or Canadian Owned. Heck, our 407 highway is owned majority by other countries. Let me repeat that - we drive on a piece of concrete/ashpalt in Canada, that we don't even own!!! It is mind blasting how little we actually own in our own country.

The funniest day will be when our government sells our lakes to another country and we have to start paying for our own water!

My wife works at one of the Zellers stores that was bought and they have learned that the location will neither be a target nor has been bought by anyone else yet, it is one of the few union stores. the article above should have mentioned at least something about those who will lose their jobs like the full time employees with 5+ yrs because the trend is to hire mostly part time people to fill full time positions especially in the retail industry.

I am not pro union and neither are most of the employees as it is union in name only. Target is very anti union so the chance of these employees getting hired are very slim. I also notice that this being a GM town where we live got lots of money from us hard working tax payers that the UAW in a "union" town haven't given any support, even moral support for a union store being closed. The greedy pigs only look after themselves.

For the majority of Zellers workers, such as myself, Target means the loss of our jobs. The public may not realize that Target is requiring us to reapply. For the third who do get hired, it means the loss of their seniority. Further, the third who do get hired have been getting laid off as soon as Target hires replacements. That means that for having applied to Target, they not only lose their job for the 2nd time, but they also lose their entitlement to their severance and notice in accordance with the years they contributed to Zellers. If Target was so great for the job market, they would have hired us on! I wonder what will happen if any of the employees try to unionize.

As a Zellers worker, I have been watching store by store go into liquidation and close down. Another complication of Target's choice not to hire us on is that as each store nears closing, our hours will go down, which negates some of the educational opportunities that E.I. would otherwise provide. This is so because E.I. is calculated on the average number of weekly hours for the last year. I say, Down with Target!

To Mr Negative and Ken from Oshawa, 1st to Mr negative, 407 might be a foreigner business but works better than any Canadian road, it's shameful all the money that has been thrown during the last 30 yrs of idiots, mostly liberals, and still for example, Ontario has the same old roads and Hwys and the province is unable to build ramps,lanes or new accesses like in the USA, and try control the heavy traffic, not even a project of add couple of lanes on the 401 you have heard. You are right about the rest, not to mention "we canuckies" are not business oriented and that's why our businesses aren't perpetual like american businesses, also we still are stuck with the british model of doing business , and how canadian businesses love to hit customers' pockets in order to recover tax money from government, that's why Walmart doesn't care about losses or earnings, they believe in volumes and not per unit like the others. When canadian business bring prices down and competitive with Walmart, we'll see the difference. Made in Canada? when? other than RIM, I don't know any canadian product to export. I don't see Made in Canada since late 80's. To Ken: If I open a business or corporation I do it in order to "CREATE WEALTH" not to create jobs...It's not greed, it's business...I won't sacrifice my business for the sake of others, when you have your own. My father preferred to shut down his plant and move abroad instead of having an union telling him how much he had to pay employees. Before the union was certified, he had already bought another building in South America. Would you like me to step in your house and tell you what to do? what picture, furniture or curtain you should use? Of course not. I understand business owners.....

Well Matt... your family outsourced canadian jobs. Congratulations! Its becauce of employers like you that have hard working families going to the food bank each month because they had the misfortune to work for an employer who will use them to get established & then set up shop elsewhere . You wouldnt know anything about that tho would you. I seriously doubt you worry how your gonna feed your kids this month. Walmart hires mostly part time employees so they dont have to pay benefits & they can cut hours down to nothing whenever they feel like it. Target will do the same. Of course its greed! Its all about the bottom line. So what if your employees cant feed their kids on what they earn as long as the rich keep getting richer. Any business that closes up shop & moves overseas should be banned from selling anything back to Canadians. Any employer who's full time ratio is lower than their part time ratio should be taxed to death until they get it in line.

Concern Canadian, I guess you got my point and support indirectly my argument and that's why our industrial parks are becoming desertic. Zellers gone, Caterpillar in London, Martinrea in Windsor, Windtronics in LaSalle that by the way went back to the USA support their own economy because McGuinty broke promises, the Solar plant in Windsor moved to Michigan as well, and I can go on, and on, and on, the stupid US president said "We are creating jobs" and he didn't realize that most of american companies are leaving/pulling out of Canada because government and unions make impossible to make a decent profit, and isn't competitive to produce in Canada anymore. How can a american can live in $18 machinist job and why a Canadian in almost $30 and keeps whining? Expensive life in Canada? don't tell me, of course because business communities here won't help to each other.Also, Provincial premiers abuse the generosity of Feds. For example when Harper came to power he brought the GST to 5%, but the provincial premiers took advantage of it and raised the PST. Also, Harper introduces the HST in order to cut cost and make things easier, but premiers added PST to the exempted goods and services, then blamed Harper for it. Harper idea of HST wasn't to eliminate the exemptions, nevertheless McGuinty did, and Campbell as well and that's why BC went to referendum and they made him resign. WE NEED TO CLEAN THE HOUSE 1ST and learn to be more individual....

Ha Ha What a phoney. There will be many jobs lost but not gained. They should send all these big box stores back home. all they do is come up here and rip off the

Canucks. If I was PM I would tell Lowes and Home Depot to either stop ripping off the canucks or pack up and get to hell out of Canada. We can do quite well with Home hardware and Rona. Ripping us off at least they are Canadiann. For Instance an electric power bar sells for about 12 bucks in the States while it sells here for about 27 bucks plus the HST Same Home Depot. Big rip off.

Target will do nothing for our economy but it's not Target's fault, just like it's not the fault of Wal-Mart, Home Depot, 407, or another big box American chain. They come here because they get away with taking advantage of us; our government cares about their business more than it cares about it's citizens. But the government is not all to blame, we need to take some responsibility ~ we will work, shop and support these companies. We will NOT take a stand, in good Canadian fashion we will gripe about it BUT do nothing! except make them richer and let them take their money out of Canada.

I recently lost my job to outsourcing, I worked for Bell Mobility, they outsourced to the Philippines and India ~ I worked for a company that provided a service to Canadians that I was also a customer; now I'm unemployed and no longer a customer.

Your right its NOT Walmart, Target, or any big box's fault. Its our fault. When you shop at Walmart you are sending a message. When you place a Sears catalog order with an operator in the Phillipines... you are sending a message.We support these companies so they can get away with whatever they want. Target's 27,000 equals 25,000 part time jobs. A part time job is what a student does for beer money. Mr Harper why don't you try raising your family on 20 hrs a week at $10.50. I hope y'all like kraft dinner... you'll be eating it 5 nights a week.

Burned at the stake....I'm agreed with you in somehow, but remember that a multinational in order to enter Canada, the government must own or get the 55%, and that's on of the reasons of why it's so expensive, by the way 407 ETR is a Spaniard company...Mr Fed up, it's not Harper but the idiots that you and even part of my family elected as premiers, the pro-tax guys (Liberals and NDPs). I don't feel that Walmart take advantage of me, but when I enter Food Basics, Loblaws, Zehrs, and Canadian Tire I do, Nofrills is what we have left, when Nofrills prices go up, I'll quit shopping there and Walmart will be the only one place to shop, I save $120 monthly in groceries compared to the Canadian stores, and let me tell you something "Burned at the stake" still home depot and Lowes are way cheaper than Home Hardware and Canadian Tire. I don't support thieves, pocket leeches, etc. Walmart is the response of how the canadian people boycott canadian businesses whom take advantage of canadian shopper by reaping them off

Matt, i do not agree with your "this is business, not greed" statement. Companies such as walmart and most other big box stores structure their business to create better profits. (Example not having very many full time staff or benefits) you say that business is to create wealth for its owners, and i agree, however not by paying employees (other humans) as little as possible, while lining your pockets off of others who are barely getting by.

We constantly send work away, claiming that we cannot compete anymore because our labour is too expensive (mean while, prices really haven't come down that much) considering you are paying someone 3 cents to make a pair of shoes. Now, i probably don't have my facts straight, but when you look at the record profits these companies are making, how can you justify paying your employees so little? For almost a decade the walton's were in the top ten richest people in the world. If you actually add up their wealth they would be the richest family on the forbes list (that is, wealth that is actually documented) Is that not greed? or you think they deserve to have all that money? (i bet you do, and that is the problem with the world)

You don't have to have a PhD to figure out what is wrong with the world. It is a 5 letter word and it sounds like GREED. If you don't believe me, look at the executives pay and how much they have increased in the last 30 years? Then look at the average joe's increase?

Anyhow, it doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, it is meaning less paper. All we really need is food and shelter and loved ones, everything else is a way to keep us occupied.

Matt, my point is, start thinking about the people who helped you get to where you are. You may be the brightest man in the world, but with out your devoted employees (you know, the people who run your business on a day to day basis) you wouldn't be where you are today.

I think that is the worst part of greed. The part where you actually think you could have done it all on your own. ....

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To Matt: I think that's the point "the government must ... get 55%" but what do the people get?? The people who work these stores; that keep them going. We deserve to have some job security, we deserve to have the stability of a full time position, we deserve to have benefits; we deserve to make a good wage for the work that is expected! We deserve these rights to be able to take care of our families. Again, I don't fault these businesses they will take all they can and give as little as they must but our government must step up and set these standards, they must ensure these basic needs are met.