lobo1969 Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 I'm too devastated by the news to say anything else... I hope you didn't have a job there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seapotato Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Boo, Target was my go to place for clearance lego! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legoray01 Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 I'm, sorry my neighbors to the north. We just recently lost the two Kmarts that I went to around here - I have other options but losing a store sucks. Seeing empty buildings sucks, losing jobs sucks. There is just no other way around it. - It sucks. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristopherJB Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 They did have the new minecraft sets last week. Might still have some left. Their lego shelves in general are quite bare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedsausage Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Well that's too bad! Some of the best deals I received were from target. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregpj Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 They did have the new minecraft sets last week. Might still have some left. Their lego shelves in general are quite bare. None of them are on clearance though. The four Targets near me were all very different... the flagship store had no selection and crappy clearance deals (this one also has Ender Dragon on for $74.99 which seems to be an error). One had great clearance deals but was 99% picked over. The other two had jack for clearance but tons of LEGO. No new 2015 sets at any of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumper Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 tip: when the shelves are bare find a redshirt guy to ask if there is stock yet to be moved from storage, chances are good that they have & just haven't had the time to move it out yet or as one fellow I was talking to indicated, they have been told to move all the inventory that women tend to purchase out first - these have but minor discounts so they can make bigger money faster turning over that inventory first before the monitored liquidation begins the end of the month. The employees are working especially hard to keep up the reputation of excellent customer service (it's to their benefit when they go out to find another position elsewhere) so if you ask for anything they will indeed take the time to go & get it for you (even if it's something silly like "all the Lego Temple of Light sets you can find" - btw, they're $26 right now.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwraith Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 tip: when the shelves are bare find a redshirt guy to ask if there is stock yet to be moved from storage, chances are good that they have & just haven't had the time to move it out yet or as one fellow I was talking to indicated, they have been told to move all the inventory that women tend to purchase out first - these have but minor discounts so they can make bigger money faster turning over that inventory first before the monitored liquidation begins the end of the month. The employees are working especially hard to keep up the reputation of excellent customer service (it's to their benefit when they go out to find another position elsewhere) so if you ask for anything they will indeed take the time to go & get it for you (even if it's something silly like "all the Lego Temple of Light sets you can find" - btw, they're $26 right now.) I think the Lego stock in most stores is all out on the floor already. In my area at least the shelves are close to bare, and the ones that aren't are only because they are stretching the same products all across the aisles as much as possible to make them look more full haha. One location that did not clearance the TMNT Movie sets had them spread out across 1 whole side of the aisle, 1 box deep allll the way across. There will obviously be exceptions and i'm sure there are some sets hiding in the back that may emerge (maybe even some hidden gems that got lost!). So certainly a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumper Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 There may also be movement of inventory from minor stores to the larger more trafficked stores as well in an effort to consolidate services as the shutdown begins. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_14 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 If they were the same beast, operated the same as in the US they would have been huge in Canada... they hype flying around a year before the changeover had the market interest all but wrapped up & in their pocket - but the lack of product & prices worse than pretty much anyplace else, left Canadians with a real bad opinion of them right out of the gate - the disappointment was too over whelming & few folks seemed willing to forgive them & simply went back to Walmart & Tiger (they at least should have been able to kill off the Real Canadian StupidStore while they were here) There was no way they were going to kill off Real Canadian without any significant food for sale. Target couldn't even compete with Shoppers on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_14 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Boo, Target was my go to place for clearance lego! Agreed. Regular 50% clearance deals. But then this was probably a warning sign. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumper Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Agreed. Regular 50% clearance deals. But then this was probably a warning sign. Funny that, a warning sign indeed, now, thou at the time it appeared to be an honest effort to herd the masses back in the door to claim ownership of their position in the marketplace & maybe to correct the unbalanced optics vs the American version of Target we expected. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregpj Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 There was no way they were going to kill off Real Canadian without any significant food for sale. Target couldn't even compete with Shoppers on this. I agree with this... their food section was a joke. It's funny, in my local paper there was obviously a lot of coverage in it with a number of quotes from the first Target Canada CEO. He lamented that people in Canada weren't accustomed to the "do all your shopping in one place" like American shoppers were. No wonder they didn't succeed here. People wanted a "Super Target" with a real grocery section, not some half-baked grocery section that stocks half as much of the exact same products and the same price as other stores. Walmart and Superstore kicked their sorry asses plain and simple. He also lamented about higher distribution costs, taxes, etc. If Walmart and Home Depot (I know, not the same market but an American company first) can be so successful up here then I can only say that the people who were responsible for bringing Target to Canada were just incompetent and not qualified. Target should have succeeded here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TabbyBoy Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Tesco are in serious trouble in the UK, one of my mates who's a regional manager has just been asked to cull 250 staff within the next week. Their service and quality has sucked in recent months and I have no sympathy at all for the company that buys private jets. Asda (UK Walmart) are much better and even their LEGO is shipped in factory boxes, not bin bags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@rtisan Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Couple more thoughts, we lose another competitor, a fairly major one, though I suppose Targets` impact is now debatable. Walmart does extremely well here in Canada, how they thought they could just move up and compete with poor infrastructure like this is beyond. What`s worse is Target actually has some very good real estate locations, and I mean that. They have several spots that I`ve visited or know of that are really quite good. They would have done in all likelihood very well up here, but a series of extreme changes needed to be made, and they needed to have done that before opening 133 stores which they could not properly manage or supply. Anyone up here who bought clearance deals from Target, and I have as well on my travels (have visisted 15+ stores personally across the country) knows that feeling of getting a great "American type" deal here in Canada. Like 50% or more, which happens so rare to us up here. Well that's too bad! Some of the best deals I received were from target. Agreed. Regular 50% clearance deals. But then this was probably a warning sign. Funny that, a warning sign indeed, now, thou at the time it appeared to be an honest effort to herd the masses back in the door to claim ownership of their position in the marketplace & maybe to correct the unbalanced optics vs the American version of Target we expected. Agreed very much you guys. Just serves to show that they tried to offer what they do in the States but completely failed at how they should go about doing that. Anyway, we can now do what we did a few years ago. At least Amazon.ca has come into play as well in the last couple years will Lego, they`ve had some serious clearance deals already (50, 60, 75%) though some of those sets were useless investments. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lobo1969 Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 The news was saying today all Target stores will be completed closed by April. Also don't expect any new stock to appear though some the existing distribution points may filter new stock in. Also 'clearance pricing' will start appearing in about 2 weeks. From a LEGO standpoint, don't expect the selection to get any better but the discount pricing could appear anytime I would expect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwraith Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 One of the Targets i browsed on my way home yesterday had something funny going on... The side entrance from the mall was closed with the big gate locked, and the sign said "please use main entrance". So i walked outside to go to the main entrance thinking they are possibly going to keep this side door shut to prevent theft (i believe theft does increase during these liquidation sales, at least from what Blockbusters Liquidation company told us). The front door was also locked and inside looked like it was closed as it was pitch black. And i though "oh wow, guess this store decided to close super early?" This store is a very slow store compared to all the others i go to and that's saying something haha. After a few seconds though an employee yanked the door open and told me they were indeed open, but that the Town had cut their power thinking they had closed up shop for good. I chuckled a bit, but felt bad for the employees Anyways they had a couple lights on and the registers going, below is a pic i took. It was much darker then what the picture actually shows. This location's Lego selection is quite stocked. Hadn't been in a little while but i figured it would be like the rest: bare. I was wrong, this will likely be the first i check once there are reports of Liquidation sales. However it's out of the way from work, and won't be able to check until i get home in the evening, at which point it may be picked clean of the good sets! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumper Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Sale on tumbleweeds, aisle 4... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@rtisan Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 That`s hilarious, talk about jumping the gun haha. Well good luck to you, hopefully you can score some awesome deals when the time comes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravtation Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 (edited) What about giving some tips to other Canadian board members, before making many trips for nothing to each Target Store around your place. UPC/DCPI .. code can be looked over if you call each of your nearby stores .. this way they can at least tell you if there is any left of specific sets .. and if they already made a clearance deal on them .. Note that each stores might set or not their own clearance price ( this we will know shortly). So here's a little list of codes you can use if you want to call your stores to check availability : Star Wars : Imperial Destroyer 75055 : regular Price 149.99 $ - 673419210577 AT-A Walker 75054 : regular Price 129.99 $ - 673419210560 Friends : Ranch 41039 : regular Price 89.99 $ - 673419207867 Dolphin Cruiser 41015 : regular Price 89.99 $ - 673419189972 Downtown Bakery 41006 : regular Price 34.99 $ - 673419189507 CITY : Cargo Terminal 60022 : regular Price 129.99 $ - 673419191166 Coast Guard Plane 60015 : regular Price 59.99 $ - 673419191210 Airport Firetruck 60061 : regular Price 39.99 $ - 673419207607 Ninja Turtles: Big Rig Show Getway 79116 : regular Price 89.99 $ - 673419212182 Turtle Lair Invasion 79117 : : regular Price 119.99 $ - 673419212199 Castles: 70400 : RP = 14.99$ - 673419190657 70401 : RP = 24.99$ - 673419190664 70402 : RP = 39.99$ - 673419190671 70403 : RP = 59.99$ - 673419190688 If you have more .. I invite you to improve this list ! Hope this list will help you reaching your goals ! ! PS ; Sorry fro my english .. ( Frenchie boy! ) Edited January 28, 2015 by gravtation 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigreen Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Very good tips, thank you gravtation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwraith Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 (edited) What about giving some tips to other Canadian board members, before making many trips for nothing to each Target Store around your place. Won't be making many trips myself as most of my surrounding Target's are bone dry of Lego There's 1 or 2 i'll check, but even then i don't know if i'll even be able to get there before it's picked clean once the liquidation starts. I'm actually looking more forward to grabbing non-Lego on sale. Need a few things around the house and have not been able to get them on sale elsewhere yet. I have a feeling the Liquidation sale might not be as great as we all hoped (at least the first wave of discounts). They might start the liquidation at a small amount, maybe %25-30. They don't need to go crazy with the discount, and even 25/30 will sell out most of the good stuff and get people flocking in. After a while i'd guess they'd move to %50, and just keep going every week or so from there. Would love to be wrong of course, but we'll see. Excited nonetheless! and will be sure to post updates on findings Edited January 28, 2015 by Sandwraithx157 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumper Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 word I hear is allot of the stock that's going to be "liquidated" at huge discounts isn't even really Target inventory, it's stuff the liquidators were unable to sell elsewhere & are moving it in to take advantage of the Target's failure hype (basically junk that can have posters for 70% off to draw in crowds while the rest of the stuff is at slimmer discounts). I guess technically it's not a scam but it is a bit of a sneaky tactic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwraith Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 word I hear is allot of the stock that's going to be "liquidated" at huge discounts isn't even really Target inventory, it's stuff the liquidators were unable to sell elsewhere & are moving it in to take advantage of the Target's failure hype (basically junk that can have posters for 70% off to draw in crowds while the rest of the stuff is at slimmer discounts). I guess technically it's not a scam but it is a bit of a sneaky tactic. I've also seen a lot of "As Seen on TV" products trickling in as someone predicted earlier in the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seapotato Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Are they moving all the inventory to the states afterwards and having a clearance sale there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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