External Environment

I read an article, from the New York Times on January 13, 2011, that talks about the global segment of Target and competition in the retail industry. The article entitled "Target Moves Into Canada By Buying Store Chain," starts out by stating that this is the first global move for Target. To move into Canada, Target acquired a department store chain. The acquisition is helping Target to gain prime retail space that was otherwise unavailable.

I think that this creates a huge competitive disadvantage for Walmart in Canada, as they were ruling the market there. Target increases its competitiveness with this deal by making itself an international company. The biggest advantage to Target, with this acquisition, is the market in Canada did not suffer as much as the U.S. market has in the past few years, making the opportunity for sales greater. The market in Canada for retailers such as Target is also far less competitive than the same market in the U.S.

Citations
Austen, Ian. "Target Moves Into Canada By Buying Store Chain" New York Times on the Web. 13 Jan. 2011. Global Business. 17 Feb. 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/business/global/14target.html.