Why did they fail in the states? It seems that it is a growing trend for companies to expand into the U.S. market, realize they can't cut it, and turn heel back into Canada.
"You can only lose money for so long before you have to make some tough decisions. We're a big fish in Canada, but a much smaller fish in a huge ocean in the U.S," said Gary Patterson, the company's chief financial officer.
One suggestion for the failure is that Canadians don't understand American consumers. It is thought that the American customer is far more demanding, and therefore companies need to have very good sales staff to keep up with the customer. So when the big corps. come back with their tail between their legs they count on us here folks to put up with lousy service, poor selection, and bloated prices. Apparently that's the Canadian way.
Is there any other benefits to this fraidy-cat activity? When you tell Canadians that you can't cope in the U.S., and that you're pulling out, your stocks shoot up. Now there's patriotism for you.
Here's a list of a few Canadian stores which decided the U.S. market wasn't working for them:
uture Shop couldn't cut it in the states and has pulled out completely. Now they are focussing on adding about twenty new stores to the Future Shop chain (which currently has 81 stores) and adding twenty or so more stores to it's Computer City chain across Canada.
james hörner plans on working in the u.s. market, failing, pulling out, and watching his stock rise
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