South End Walmart: A Done Deal

For everyone looking forward to a second Walmart coming to Guelph - good news! - the project has taken one major step closer to becoming a reality.

Walmart Making a Move to Add 2nd Guelph Store at Target Site

It's been a big question since the collapse of Target Canada, what will happen to all those big box sites now on the market considering the widespread understanding of the business model that bricks-and-mortar stores are becoming irrelevant with the increase in online shopping options. Combined with the recent closure of Future Shop and other large Canadian retailers, there's a considerable amount of real estate on the market, but it seems that one of the surviving retail empires just so happens to be looking to step up. Yes, Walmart is purchasing 13 former Target sites, and one of them is in Guelph.

PRESS RELEASE - Target Calls it Quits in Canada

Well that didn't last long (relatively speaking). Not even two years after Target arrived in Canada with the fanfare of a conquering hero, the U.S.-based chain announced this morning in a sudden and surprising move that they were wrapping up their Canadian operations and closing all 133 stores in this country. The Guelph store, the manager of which got the news of the closure - I'm told - from the news itself, was one of the first Targets to open in Canada, complete with frenzied line-up of eager shoppers as pictured above. Almost immediately those same shoppers were underwhelmed with what they saw, and that underwhelmed feeling seeemed to never wore off, and now, over 17,000 people nationw-wide will be out of a job sometime over the next several months.