Target misses the mark, warns of weak sales ahead

[yeoman6987]

Source: CNN

More bad news about the health of the U.S. consumer. Retail giant Target reported sales for the second quarter that fell more than 7% from a year ago -- and warned that another key measure of sales may drop in the third quarter and fourth quarter.
The second half of the year is usually great for big retailers like Target. Back-to-school shopping tends to boost sales in the late summer and consumers typically splurge on presents for the holidays during the fall.
But Target CEO Brian Cornell, who took over the company in 2014 following the a massive cyber security breach that compromised tens of millions of customers' credit and debit card accounts, warned that this is now a "difficult retail environment."
Cornell added during a conference call with analysts on Wednesday that the company's grocery sales continue to be disappointing as well.
As a result, Target said same-store sales, which measures sales at retailers open at least a year, could fall as much as 2% in the third and fourth quarters. Target also slashed its earnings outlook for the third quarter.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/17/investing/target-earnings-retail-consumer-spending/index.html

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Ugh. Damn Conservatives and their spoiled brat behavior. So pissed. Liberals need to go to Target more.

[Kingofalldems]

1. What the hell are you talking about?

[Ilsa]

2. I think the OP is referring to a boycott by RWers

Because Target has a liberal transgender bathroom policy.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. I don't find much in Target

My local Kmart folded, Sears Hardware too. Lowes struggles locally.
Walmart is the widest selection but even there it seems like they
abandon some departments or shrink them, and concentrate on the
profitable categories. Auto center, gone. Parts in the rear corner.
Groceries begin at one entrance. At my local Target groceries are
way in the front corner, far from the entrance.

Aldi and regional and local discounters and closeouts are dominating
groceries here. Regional chains that seek fatter margins struggle.
They close one store, another builds another strip mall and opens up.
It's a cycle. Retailer bump and grind.

[yeoman6987]

4. I agree cycle

However, conservatives and Repugs are saying it is because of them boycotting. That's the part that I don't like.

[Kingofalldems]

10. Got a link on that?

You brought it up but I don't understand why.

There is certainly nothing in your OP about boycotts.

[murielm99]

5. I don't go there because of the security breach.

I got out of the habit of going to Target. There are many other stores.

[Scruffy1]

6. Not surprising.

Low quality,, and the pricing is out of line with quality. I would rather go to the dentist than shop there.

[Sherman A1]

7. Retail is a tough world

And getting tougher all the time. Even if folks are not shopping online, they are comparing prices and shopping the best deals.

[LuckyLib]

8. Or not shopping at all. Target is the place you go for toothpaste

and leave $60 later. With stuff you didn't know you "needed". Many folks are rethinking that need. That's affecting retail's bottom line.

[Sherman A1]

9. Precisely

Hit the nail on the head.

[philosslayer]

16. Walmart just beat their target

And raised guidance. Maybe the boycott IS having an impact on Target.

[TrogL]

11. Target was a disaster in Canada. How badly did this affect US operation?

[metalbot]

15. It didn't, outside of the financial disaster

The Target Canada problems were really IT related more than anything else - they had to set up a new ERP system to deal with metric units, and the effort was a total disaster and their supply chain was just completely broken. US stores weren't affected (outside of the fact that they cut costs in the US to try to stem the financial bleeding).

[TrogL]

22. The Canadian stores were a joke

The shelves were mostly empty with stock still on pallets, the staff had no clue, the store was filthy, the prices not competitive and they didn't stock basic items.

[truthisfreedom]

12. I stopped by Target (across the street from my apartment) a few days ago

Here's what happened. I wanted a cheap thumbdrive. I walked into the electronics section and didn't see one, and since there's usually someone working at the counter there I went in search of a sales person but found nobody. I walked to a question center (one of the endcaps with the red markings where you can scan items or call for help) and the phone was actually missing off the wall. I remembered having noticed that same thing months before when I tried to find something in the same part of the store. Finally I found someone in the toy section and it turned out he was in charge of electronics too. He pointed way across the store to where I needed to go and gave me some landmarks and I found the section, but all of the inexpensive thumb drives were gone and the only ones left were much bigger than I needed. This was something I was going to give away to someone I barely know and I didn't want to spend more than a few dollars. At this point I was 20 minutes into my attempt. As I walked out to go to a neighboring computer store, I stopped at the service desk and asked to speak to a manager. That took 15 full minutes. When he arrived, I described my shopping visit up to that point and he actually interrupted me to finish my sentence when I got to the part about the missing phone, fully aware that it isn't on the wall in the toy section. He had no explanation for the phone, however. At the end of my comments he shrugged and said "it's back to school so we're a little short-staffed." The whole time, his arms were crossed and he stared at me blankly like I was nothing but a pain to him. I really wanted to end the conversation with "I'll bring your observations up at the shareholder's meeting" but I wasn't interested in continuing the annoyance.

I went to a MicroCenter a few blocks away to look for a cheap thumbdrive and found one immediately, but left because the line to the registers was over 20 people and despite the fact that they had 4 sales people working them the line was moving very slowly. Seriously, retail has got to get its shit together. I ended up waiting until I had more time and went back to micro to grab one the next day, but if I'd had a couple of days I would definitely have purchased it via amazon prime, where I end up buying almost everything, and returning it for free if I'm not satisfied. Seriously... I do a lot of technical design and inventing and I purchase things on Amazon that I never believed I could find almost instantly online. Miniature peristaltic pumps... I can buy several brands, compare them, then return the ones I don't want, and I find everything one one website. Fittings for tubing, electrical connectors, spherical magnets, 6 foot lengths of clear polycarbonate tubing with a specific ID and OD and wall thickness... and the packaging looks more expensive than the item! I really have no idea how they do it, but I can tell you that it's going to completely destroy brick and mortar retail soon.

[Sherman A1]

13. Precisely

What you saw at Target was the result of the "penny wise - pound foolish" mentality that has become so pervasive in Retail since the arrival of the Wal Mart business model back in the 1980's. Yes, they are understaffed, which leads to out of stocks on the shelf and virtually no service in the store beyond a checker and one person running 8 self service checkouts, but they have done it to themselves.

This is the result of computer scheduling, bloated management (both egos and salaries), MBA's who know all the answers, but not the questions and worker's pay so low that turnover is so high that folks have no incentive to care.

As the wise man once said to me.... "most wounds are self inflicted".

[romanic]

20. Retail definitely needs to get it together, esp. Target.

I've noticed the slide of service at my local Target as well. Staff stretched out across 2 or three departments, less registers open, brand new self-checkout lanes not working and long lines full of pissed off customers and crying kids who tagged along. And this was only on a Tuesday afternoon.

Retailers need to stop cpunting pennies to save or else those pennies will disappear along with thier customer base.

[rockfordfile]

14. There are other retail that had lower sales.

I would go to Target before I would a Walmart. You can't get any worse than Walmart.

[philosslayer]

17. Yet Walmart just had a great quarter

And raised their outlook going forward

[whatthehey]

18. Stock buy opportunity. In today.

[Sunlei]

19. Target needs Fresh grocery delivery like walmart just started. Amazon lacks that feature.

[LanternWaste]

21. Though I never purchase groceries at Target, it's my go-to store for small appliance

Though I never purchase groceries at Target, it's my go-to store for small appliances, housewares and craft supplies.

Maybe my off hours for shopping (Saturday mornings before ten may be the best time on the universe for shopping) or the locations I shop (I usually shop outside of my own low-income neighborhood to hit the adjacent high-income stores as the food in stock is more to my liking) skews my perspective from the standard majority opinion... it's a nice place, friendly help, friendly cashiers, always stocked, good value and quality, ect.