Why do big American retailers fail in Canada?

In today’s Big Story podcast, today it’s Nordstrom, fleeing Canada after failing to turn a profit in almost a decade of trying. Before them, it was Target, thought to be a sure thing in this country. So far, Walmart is the exception that proves the rule: If you’re an American retailer with your eyes on the Canadian market, you better do your research and have a plan.

Gary Newbury, a retail supply chain expert, strategic advisor and delivery executive with RetailAID. He’s on The Big Story to give us some background on the closure of Nordstrom, and why US brands struggle to gain a foothold in Canada.

“[Nordstrom] would have seen Target struggling pretty quickly and then closing shop, but that wasn’t enough of a signal for them to say, ‘if something as well run as Target … has struggled in this territory, what makes us think that we’re going to survive?'”

The loss of Nordstrom is sad for those who love its designer names, sure, but the stores themselves are a bigger loss as anchor tenants for premium locations in big cities that are slowly being taken over by empty storefronts. So what happened here? Was it them, or us? And what can we learn from the latest American brand to fail in Canada?

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