The promotion was pretty good, the operations not so much

Target advertisement with Canadian spelling

Although Target Canada's distribution efforts were abysmal, the company's advertising showed a bit of awareness of the country. Between some token spelling changes and the inclusion of a few well-known building, the advertisements showed that the marketing department was aware than Canada was not the same and the United States.

Canada is big. The second largest country, but one of the lowest population densities. The entire population is less than that of California. Spanning over 5,000 kilometres from Atlantic to Pacific Canada presents huge obstacles for any firm trying to distribute its merchandise. (Paris to St. John, Newfoundland and Labrador is about 4, 000 kilometres, St. John to Vancouver, British Columbia is about 5,000 kilometres.)

The costs of shipping goods around the country can shave significant chunks off any retailer's profits.

And yet, while the distribution and logistics staff seemed unable to figure out which way was up, the advertising folks came up with some rather cute campaigns.

And there is lies the problem. The promotion staff was making promises that the merchandising and operations staff could not keep.

In retail it is all about details, and despite what you may think, the consumer notices everything. Especially if it is a store that looks about half-empty. Hard to cover that up with a few cute ads.