Primary cause of death was Target's own mismanagement. Target's buyers seem to have been hired away from Disneyland. What other store would stock paintbrushes, but no paint? A whole aisle of car washes and waxes, but no spark plugs? Working class Northsiders have blue jeans, work boots, and tools on their shopping lists. Target at best could provide only poor quality imitations of the above if they stocked said neccessities at all. WalMart beat Target hands down on thoroughness of inventory and quality, and they're just a short drive out to Brooklyn Park. So Target slowly lost there target market. To add insult to injury Target canabalized their Northside store with a halfway functional store over Northeast in the Quarry and a flagship store downtown.
About a year ago I started writing about the growing epidemic of crime on the Northside and predicting the loss of many Northside anchors if the city did not act to stem said crime wave. Since then our mayor and city council have largely responded with denial. However, the mayor must be commended for quite properly taking Target to task for walking a way from the Northside. Kudos must also be given to our state representative and several community leaders for taking on Target over the closing. If R.T. and the Council had only acted a year ago they might not be in the position they are now.
Though weakened by mismanagement the Northside Target ultimately succumbed to a loss of Northsiders to shop there. I've wriiten before about the outmigration occurring on the Northside- in my block alone we have 3 empty houses and many empty apartments. For the Northsiders left Target is too scary a destination. It's customers having been discouraged, lured, and literally chased away the Northside Target has become a pretty quiet place.
By now I suspect there's crack houses on the Northside doing more business than Target's store. Which says something about the direction the Northside's economy is sadly headed.
hanging on in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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