Wal-Mart vs. Target, Canadian Version

Wal-Mart expansion signals a renewed race to the bottom.

Wal-Mart announced a $750-million expansion in Canada today that the chain says will create 14,000 new jobs across the country. The massive infusion of more mediocre-quality goods and abhorrent labour practices is clearly, umm, aimed at the arrival of Target, the U.S.' other affordable mediocre-quality goods retailer (now with reprehensible political ties!). Target says it will open 24 stores across Ontario next year, which is less than a tenth of the 333 stores that Wal-Mart operates in Canada. That works out to about one Wal-Mart per 100,000 Canadians, which is pretty staggering, but well short of the U.S.' Wal-Mart-to-human-ratio of about 1:73,000. That $750-million expansion will be spent across 73 projects, such as building new stores and upgrading older ones.