Rumour across facebook is that Target will not be coming to Brantford after all –at least not in the location on West and Fairview. Employees were told that Target will be selling the lease back to the owners at a date to be determined later.
Which begs the question, are they coming? Will they build a new location? Brantford deserves more than just a crappy Walmart. Fact.
I am absolutely livid at the crappy customer service I got today at the place ironically named “Customer Service” at Walmart in Brantford today.
Here’s the back story. My boss, who is a woman, asked me to exchange two pairs of pants for her, as they were not the right size. Simple enough, right? An exchange is easy enough, it doesn’t cost Walmart anything, and I won’t have to feel like I’m one of those creeps that routinely try to get refunds all the time on everything (Anyone who has worked in department store retail knows who I’m talking about there).
So I come in and wait in line. Line isn’t long. Great! I should be in and out in no time. It gets to my turn. I come up, bag in hand, with receipt. I mention casually that these pants aren’t in the size she would like and that I’d like to exchange for a different size. The lady at customer service starts processing a refund.
I try to stop her. “No, I just want an exchange in a different size!” I said. “Well, you can go get them and they’ll ring you through.” She said. “But I don’t know what style they are or anything!” I tried to reason with her. “There’s a couple girls in fashion I think that might be able to help you.” No budging. She processes the refund. this woman had at least 10 years of service (I’m sure that’s what her badge said) and knew I wasn’t interested in looking for pants. Doesn’t matter.
Now this is where I’m livid. While I’m a dude that has no problem picking up stuff for women; I’m really irritated by this. This wasn’t some great thing I was asking of her. I wanted someone to get the correct size of pants! I don’t want to be looking around aimlessly in the women’s section of fashion looking for pants that I didn’t get more than a 10 second glimpse at in hopes of “finding some” in the right size. Not to mention, how the hell are these girls going to help me find “some black pants” in another size if I don’t know what they are? I’m not going to look like an idiot trying to find girl pants in the store.
Let’s add the fact that they are under construction, and nothing is in it’s correct place. So even if I knew what type of pants they were, how the hell am I going to logically go and look for them? The right answer is to say “I’ll have someone bring those up in the size you want. It’ll be two minutes.”
Now I have left absolutely raving mad (you can tell I’ve calmed down some now) and have lost what little respect I was gaining for Brantford Walmart. As it is – if I want something from a Walmart I go out of Brantford because the store is either out of stock or the service is poor. Now another reason why this Walmart blows.
Get your fucking act together Brantford Walmart, or your store isn’t going to do any better post-reno once Target comes in. Just saying. Feel free to add your Walmart Brantford hell stories in the comment section.
The Target Corporation has announced that the following locations are due to open in March or early April, 2013:
• Ajax, Durham Centre
• Aurora, Aurora Shopping Centre
• Brampton, Shoppers World Brampton
• Brampton, Trinity Common
• Burlington, Burlington Mall
• Burlington, Millcroft Centre
• Cambridge, Cambridge Centre
• Fergus, Gates of Fergus
• Guelph, Stone Road Mall
• Hamilton, Centre Mall
• Kawartha Lakes, Lindsay Square Mall
• London, Masonville Place
• London Westmount, Westmount Shopping Centre
• Newmarket, Upper Canada Mall
• Milton, Milton Mall Shopping Centre
• Mississauga, Square One Shopping Centre
• Orillia, Orillia Square Mall
• Toronto, Cloverdale Mall
• Toronto, Shoppers World Danforth
• Toronto, East York Town Centre
• Toronto, Centrepoint Mall
• Waterdown, Flamborough Power Centre
• Whitby, Taunton Road Power Centre
• Windsor, Devonshire Mall
Brantford’s Zellers did not make the first list; making the Cambridge Centre likely the area’s first real peek at the new retail giant Target.
So in case you didn’t read the press release today, Target Canada purchased the leases of an additional 84 stores, including the Brantford Plaza.
So the long standing rumours are over. Now it’s just when do they convert the Zellers store into a Target, which the press release indicates that each store will get six to nine months notice of the conversion, allowing the stores to liquidate inventory and finalize for a renovation.
Brantford Zellers joins it’s sister stores, such as the Cambridge Centre Zellers, Laurention Power Centre in Kitchener, and 3 of the 4 Hamilton are Zellers, which will all make the conversion.
Further into the release you see the Tillsonburg Zellers was acquired by Target as well….. But, it was only in Target’s hand an hour before it was traded to Walmart Canada, who according to their release, will be converting it to a Walmart, finally making their exit from the former Norfolk Mall. That Norfolk Mall store so small and cramped, so this is a smart move on their part as they can reno and expand the Tillsonburg Town Centre location.
One store left in the air, and near and dear to my heart, is the Simcoe Zellers store. The little store with heart was not included in phase one nor phase two of the Target’s plans for Canada. I love that store, and the vast majority of the employees in it…. so here’s hoping Zellers uses it as one of their small format stores, which are to be determined late this year or in the new year.
